Jobless Claims ‘Beat’ Forecast Due To Backlog Of Unprocessed Claims

Jobless claims are up 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 309,000, beating consensus expectations, but that number is probably just an artifact of two states changing the way they process claims, according to a Reuters report.

Drop in new jobless claims

California and Nevada have both updated the computer systems used to process unemployment benefits, and there are still a lot of unprocessed claims because of the transition. Full numbers aren’t expected for at least another week. This caused what appeared to be a drop in new...