Week 3 of May Jobless Claims

• Job losses remain severe showing no signs of easing.  Initial claims in May 16 fell 12,000 to 631,000. 
• A small improvement helped by the burst of Chrysler related layoffs in the week before.
• Unemployment rate of the insured labor force rose another 1/10th to 5%

"We expect that the auto shutdowns will be lifting claims for the next couple of months," said Dean Maki (economist at Barclays Capital)

• Among the states, Michigan had the largest increase in claims for the week ending May 9. Claims there rose by 16,817, which it attributed to layoffs in the auto industry.
• The next largest increases were in North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
• California reported the largest decrease in claims of 10,052, which it said was due to fewer layoffs in the service industry.
• The next largest decreases were in Wisconsin, Kansas, Oklahoma and Washington.

“While the pace of layoffs may slow, hiring remains weak and the unemployment rate will keep rising. Based on Thursday's data, predicts it could rise to 9.2 percent in May, from 8.9 percent in April.” - Abiel Reinhart (economist at JPMorgan Chase)

Source: Seattle Times & Barron's