We're really not sure why so many people seem to be surprised that new, seasonally-adjusted, weekly jobless claim filings persist in clocking in at levels above 400,000, or that the adjusted values for the previous weeks tend to be revised upward. Provided the established trend remains in effect, the number of seasonally-adjusted initial unemployment insurance claims filed each week in the U.S. is perhaps the easiest economic statistic of all to forecast.
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