New jobless claims return to a historically impressive range

The labor market is suddenly looking much better than it did as jobless claims data show across-the-board improvement. Initial claims fell 4,000 in the June 4 week to what is a very impressive and very low 264,000 level, in turn pulling down the 4-week average by 7,500 to 269,500. This is the third straight sub 270,000 level and makes a distant memory of the early May spike near 300,000.

The good news is backed up by similarly positive readings in continuing claims which fell a very sharp 77,000 in lagging data for the May 28 week. The 4-week average is down 18,000 to 2.145 million. The unemployment rate for insured workers is down 1 tenth to a new low of 1.5 percent.

There are no special factors in today's report which offers significant relief following last week's very weak employment report.