by Mike ‘Mish’ Shedlock
The Street
Initial Claims unemployment claims unexpectedly rose to the highest level in 8 weeks.
Initials State Unemployment Claims
Seasonally-adjusted initial claims for the week ending October 10 rose to 898,000 from 845,000 according to the Department of Labor.
That’s the highest total since 1,011,000 on August 22.
The BLS changed its methodology for counting initial claims effective August 29. The change artificially lowered the counts for that week.
Since the BLS did not revise back, the weeks starting August 29 are distorted vs the weeks prior.