US Jobless Claims Slow To 3.8M, Expenditures Decline For Cars, Health Care, Restaurants

Weekly unemployment claims continued to rise throughout the U.S. last week, but the damage of the coronavirus seemed to slow, according to figures reported by the Department of Labor.

Continuing jobless claims rose to 17.99 million — well below the 19.24 million consensus estimate but far exceeding the previous week’s 15.82 million. Meanwhile, initial jobless claims fell from 4.44 million to about 3.84 million, which was marginally worse than the 3.5 million forecasted.

Overall, the four-week average for jobless claims fell from 5.79 million to 5.03 million, denoting progress from the beginning of April when unemployment claims struck 6.6 million.

See Also: March Jobs Report Worse Than Expected, Unemployment Rises To 4.4%

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis also reported that the March Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index rose just 1.3% compared to March 2019's rise of 1.8%. Personal spending fell 7.5% from February to March as personal income fell -2%. February had recorded increases of 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively.

“The decrease in real PCE in March reflected a decrease of $829.9 billion in spending for services and a $104.9 billion in spending for goods,” according to the BEA. “Within services, the leading contributor to the decrease was spending on health care, including physician, dental, and paramedical services. Other contributors to the decrease in services were spending on food services and accommodations as well as recreation services.”

Spending on cars and auto parts suppliers led the decline in goods. Spending on food and beverages for off-premises consumption partly offset drops in other goods categories.