·
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 30,000 to 335,000 last
week and reversed the little revised 23,000 decline the prior week.
Consensus expectations had been for a lesser increase to 311,000 claims.
· Hurricane related claims totaled 21,000 and brought the total of the three storms during the last twelve weeks to 582,000.
· The four-week moving average of initial claims ticked up slightly to 323,250 (-2.5% y/y).
· Continuing claims for unemployment insurance rose a sharp 59,000 following three successive weeks of decline.
· The insured rate of unemployment held at 2.2% for the ninth consecutive week.
· Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee November 1, 2005 can be found here.
· Estimating the
"Neutral" Real Interest Rate in Real Time from the Federal
Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.