Initial jobless claims for the week ending February 11 decreased by 1,000 to 194,000 (consensus 203,000). Continuing jobless claims for the week ending February 4 increased by 16,000 to 1.696 million.
The key takeaway from the report is that the persistence of initial claims below 200,000 reflects a very tight labor market, and a reluctance on the part of most companies to cut their workforce, which will continue to drive worries at the Fed about tight labor market conditions feeding into sticker wage-based inflation pressures.