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Economic Indicators

Initial Jobless Claims

Labor Market

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Initial jobless claims count the number of individuals filing for unemployment insurance benefits for the first time in a given week, compiled and released every Thursday by the US Department of Labor from data reported by state unemployment insurance offices. Because it is one of the timeliest available economic statistics, reflecting labor-market conditions with only about a one-week lag, it is closely watched by economists and financial markets as an early real-time signal of layoffs and labor-market turning points well ahead of the monthly employment report.

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