What’s Going On With Alternating Continued Unemployment Claims?

I have been watching this pattern for weeks.

For 24 consecutive weeks the change in the number of continued claims has alternated between positive and negative numbers.

Initial Unemployment Claims

Initial unemployment claims turn into continued claims a week later minus those finding a new job.

Continued Unemployment Claims

The obvious implication is that on average, everyone being fired quickly (within a week) finds a new job, like clockwork for 24 straight weeks.

Related Posts

April 30, 2025: ADP Employment Report Much Weaker than Expect, Large Employment Stalls

Economists expected 125,000 jobs. ADP reported 62,000 with negative revisions.

Businesses with 20-49 employees have been struggling since the beginning of 2024. We are now seeing a rapid deceleration of the largest employers.

At least according to ADP.

April 25, 2025: Which State Will Have the Highest Unemployment Rate in the Next Recession?

History suggests Michigan will likely be hit the hardest.

May 2, 2025: Jobs Rise by 177,000 in April, 58,000 Negative Revisions in Preceding Months

The BLS beats the street again vs expectations of 130,000 jobs.

Subscribe to MishTalk Email Alerts.

Subscribers get an email alert of each post as they happen. Read the ones you like and you can unsubscribe at any time.

This post originated on MishTalk.Com

Thanks for Tuning In!

Mish

Comments to this post are now closed.

29 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Rogerroger
Rogerroger
7 months ago

Could all the government firing have something to do with it. Fired / reinstated. Fired. Reinstated. Etc.
i assume all those gove / vendors employees applied for unemployment as soon as the were terminated.

Matt
Matt
7 months ago

DOGE should take a look at this.

Augustine
Augustine
7 months ago

“Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure.”

I’m back robbyrob
I’m back robbyrob
7 months ago

Confused about Trump’s tariff policy? Join the club.
Hiltzik: What’s Trump’s goal with the tariffs? – Los Angeles Times (archive.ph)

MPO45v2
MPO45v2
7 months ago

Great article, perfectly illustrates MAGA dumb in all 5 dimensions.

“It will now be cheaper to import a U.K. vehicle with very little U.S. content than a USMCA-compliant vehicle from Mexico or Canada that is half American parts,” complained the American Automotive Policy Council, a lobbying group for Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

TEF
TEF
7 months ago

42% of the 88 million medicaid recipients are non-disabled adults less than 65. There are 7-8 million job openings available. That’s quite a delta. With regard to immigration, before the 1930’s immigrants were pretty much on their own; now the social net provided by US taxpayers and the large government %-GDP deficits make America a very attractive magnet with congressional politicians incentivized by non-citizen census inclusion in representation proportionality. The small swings in monthly unemployment underestimate the below the surface iceberg of mostly service sector job availability for the 35 million adult medicaid recipients. Current SPX final peak valuation to incipient crash fractal model from the low on 27 October 2023 to 17 June 2025: 55/139/136/83 days :: x/2.5x/2.5x/1.5x with a peak valuation on 19 Feb 2025, a lower high on 20 May 2025 and incipient crash low on 17 June 2025.

Phil
Phil
7 months ago

Smells like a data collection/ statistical issue.

Six000MileYear
Six000MileYear
7 months ago

Oscillations are suspect.

Data smoothing algorithms may have changed. Previous data sets never lead to high frequency oscillations.

It could very well be the labor market is gyrating as reported, which indicates a very large system instability problem ahead.

I doubt those on UI are voluntarily giving up weekly unemployment checks, but they might falsely report being unemployed a couple of weeks after finding a job.

MPO45v2
MPO45v2
7 months ago

“The obvious implication is that on average, everyone being fired quickly (within a week) finds a new job, like clockwork for 24 straight weeks.”

The issue with the labor market are demographic forces.  Millions of boomers continue to retire each year, some voluntarily others not.  Trump is rounding up illegal immigrants and check the story in the link below to see how that impacts businesses. The irony is the owner is a big MAGA clown.

Nothing is going to fix the aging of the American workforce, it’s not even viable anymore given the median age of women in America is pushing 40. It’s all real-time demographic collapse now, an earthquake taking down business by business maybe not all at once but fracturing day by day.

Warren Buffett just sold off all his financial stocks recently and that’s very telling about the current situation. I used this sucker’s rally to take some profits.

https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/lower-broadway-ice-sweeps/article_7840f5c5-fba5-447c-bb20-14016fc661aa.html

At the instruction of managers, restaurant employees without legal citizenship status left the premises at The Diner, Honky Tonk Central and Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk Rock N’ Roll Steakhouse during a primetime rush on Saturday night to avoid detention by ICE agents. Locations, already struggling to provide full service, suffered through at least Sunday due to fears from employees who did not want to risk arrest by returning to work

And Trump wants to bring back manufacturing? We don’t have enough cooks in the kitchen, literally.

Got exit strategy?

MPO45v2
MPO45v2
7 months ago
Reply to  MPO45v2

And for those that still don’t believe or understand the demographic death spiral, Penn State shutting down campuses all over the place.

https://www.pennlive.com/education/2025/05/penn-state-blames-looming-campus-closures-on-declining-pennsylvania.html

Pennsylvania is facing widespread population declines, with rural areas experiencing the most pronounced reductions. Forty-one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties are facing significant population declines: rural counties are projected to lose 5.8% of their total population by 2050, while urban counties are projected to grow slightly (+4.1%),” the report states.

In many cases, precipitous enrollment declines over the last decade or longer earmarked these campuses for closure.

No people = no economy.

The fed can raise or lower rates to whatever they want, they can drop free money from helicopters and congress can pass whatever tax incentives they want, none of those things will fix the demographic death spiral.

So MAGA can rejoice all they want about ICE raids and TV sound bites about it but the only way out of this mess is with massive immigration. Perhaps now people will understand why “open borders” has been a thing at all.

It will be interesting to see where we are a year from now if Trump keeps up his ICE raids. I wonder how many shops will shutdown or how high inflation will spike.

Michael Engel
Michael Engel
7 months ago
Reply to  MPO45v2

High Ed colleges oversupply. There are not enough zoomers to keep PA state colleges opened. Chinese and Indians go to CMU. Josh Shapiro had to cut PA budget deficit where it’s least painful. In 2009, when the US was breaking apart, Obama sent kids to state colleges instead of rioting in the streets and causing troubles. Josh supports old farmers. He encourage young people to replace them. There are not enough elderly to keep PA hospitals opened.

Last edited 7 months ago by Michael Engel
Laura
Laura
7 months ago
Reply to  MPO45v2

Hopefully ALL businesses that hire illegals will be shut down.

MPO45v2
MPO45v2
7 months ago
Reply to  Laura

They won’t ever be shut down (at least the big businesses), haven’t for the last 50 years, they just get a slap on the wrist with a wink & nod then it’s business as usual.

But you can fantasize about it all you want.

Last edited 7 months ago by MPO45v2
RonJ
RonJ
7 months ago
Reply to  MPO45v2

I’ve read that Obama deported 3 million illegal aliens. Democrats only complained during Biden when it was hurting Democrat populations, such as Martha’s Vineyard or a mass influx into NYC. Only moved to cut back the influx when it looked like Democrats could lose the White House because of it. Mass illegal immigration has created a mess, not solved a mess. Biden did it to overwhelm the system, as in Rules for Radicals and Coward Piven strategy, not because of a need for third world workers.

Michael Engel
Michael Engel
7 months ago

The ziondon didn’t ask Bibi permission to shake Syria president hands. Al Golani, who looks like Theodor Herzl, the zionism founder, wants to make peace with Israel when Israel is ready. Trump leaves the Gulf states with $2T orders for futures jobs and wilh a request to settle with Iran nuke deal peacefully. It’s either $2T in unrealized promises to flood the Gulf States with modern weapons or his ego. QQQ reached Jan 31 close, but SPX is lagging behind below Feb close. Option: both might flip in June. It will be volatile for a while, before ==> SPX 7K in a low slog up to mid 2026. Recession on hold.

Last edited 7 months ago by Michael Engel
Patrick
Patrick
7 months ago

Sine waves. Welcome to Skynet.

alx west
alx west
7 months ago

jesus!! good one mish!

why anybody need other proof that all those gov reports are simple bogus??
product of excel spreadsheets and 8th grade math

esp. those reported frequently

Jojo
Jojo
7 months ago
Reply to  alx west

Take the red pill!

alx west
alx west
7 months ago
Reply to  Jojo

it is called projection, you would know if visited college

see a doctor mo1ron!

bmcc
bmcc
7 months ago
Reply to  alx west

waste of brain cells to analyze most of gov data in the short term. GDP includes department of war spending. hardly productive. best chart of all time is dow/gold ratio over past century. or the median house/gold ratio.

DaveFromDenver
DaveFromDenver
7 months ago
Reply to  alx west

The volitivity we see in most of the economic reports should not be there. 
So why is it? Who could benefit from this? Biden used to brag (every two months) about some report that made his results look better. Now the media slams Trump (every two months) about some report that make his results look bad. Could the two be related?     

Tony Frank
Tony Frank
7 months ago

Don’t forget the various “seasonal adjustments” and etc.

dtj
dtj
7 months ago

Remember those truckers making 6 figures and driving around in limousines? You don’t hear much about that fantasy anymore because shortly after the “truck driver shortage” media hype ended, the trucking industry went into a tailspin and has been down ever since.

How about those hotshot tech workers who could “name their price” and have their pick of several lucrative jobs? Also gone. After the COVID hiring boom ended, the bust happened and now the job market is slim pickings.

The upheaval with the Federal work force is yet to be fully felt in the job market, but it will have ripple effects. The job market and the housing market in DC has entered a bust.

You won’t hear the financial press talk about any of this because all they care about is stocks going up. Happy news keeps the party going, even if the ship is sinking.

Jojo
Jojo
7 months ago
Reply to  dtj

Speaking of truck drivers. The luddites are being revived. Don’t take our jobs.

Albertsons Teamsters drivers authorize strike over self-driving trucks

Drivers in the union also are calling for wages, pensions, and safety measures commensurate with other unionized Albertsons drivers

Timothy Inklebarger, Editor

May 13, 2025

Some 90 Albertsons truck drivers represented by Dallas-based Teamsters Local 745 have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike over contract negotiations that union members say would pave the way for self-driving trucks. 

The union announced Monday that 97% of its members voted in favor of the strike authorization, arguing that language in the proposed contract “would allow the use of unsafe, unregulated autonomous trucks—putting jobs, families, and public safety at risk.”

https://www.supermarketnews.com/retail-labor/albertsons-teamsters-drivers-authorize-strike-over-self-driving-trucks

Patrick
Patrick
7 months ago
Reply to  dtj

Poor DC. Creates almost nothing, richest counties in the US, epicenter of mass formation psychosis, toilet swirl of taxpayer dollars, greed, grift, corruption. Kind of like Moscow in the Soviet Union days. Make it into a big park.

bmcc
bmcc
7 months ago
Reply to  Patrick

gov housing projects all over moscow are frightening testament to how docile most human primates are to their silver backs.

Patrick
Patrick
7 months ago
Reply to  bmcc

50 Story tenement buildings in DC and surrounding counties. Great idea!

Stay Informed

Subscribe to MishTalk

You will receive all messages from this feed and they will be delivered by email.