9/21/2020
By Charles Payne CEO & Principal Analyst

I begin my Perspective with the jobless numbers, which continue to be a clear sign the economy needs one more stimulus push.

The 860,000 Americans that filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on September 12^th was lower than the prior week and slightly more than Wall Street’s consensus. But this does not sufficiently tell the story. 

There was also a sharp decline in the special Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, designed to help self-employed folks that are out of work and cannot utilize traditional unemployment benefit plans. Recipients of PUA swooned to 658,737 from 868,314.

Tally Total Too Tall

Note: the total number of folks on all the various unemployment benefit packages remains near 30,000,000. That tally is always two weeks delayed, so we can only hope it’s lower since this number is not much lower than the Pandemic peak of 32,429,809.

Initial Jobless Claims

Yes, we have to continue to be encouraged by the sharp decline in Continuing Jobless Claims. The big decline of 916,000 brought the tally to 12.63 million, which is the lowest since April 4^th.

To read the full report, contact your account representative or email Research@wstreet.com

Charles Payne
Wall Street Strategies

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