how jobless claims affect the market
as mentioned the initial jobless claims measure emerging unemployment and the continued claims data measure the number of people still claiming unemployment benefits the continued claims data is released one week later than the initial claims for this reason the initial claims usually have a higher impact on the financial markets 4many financial analysts incorporate estimates of the report into their market forecast if a weekly release on jobless claims comes insignificantly different than consensus estimates this can move the markets higher or lower generally the move is the inverse of the report if initial jobless claims are down the market will often rally upwards if the initial jobless claims are up the market may slump the initial jobless claims report gets a lot of press due to its simplicity and the basic assumption that the healthier the job market the healthier the economy that is more people working means more disposable income in the economy which leads to higher personal consumption and gross domestic product gdp 