Recent Updates
- US: FHFA Home Mortgage Terms, Advance Durable Goods, Adv Trade & Inventories (Mar)
- Canada: Payroll, Employment, Earnings & Hours (Feb)
- Spain: Mortgage Market, Labor Force Survey (Q1) State Public Finance (Mar), Social Security Funds, Consolidated, Central Government Public Finances (Feb), Tax Receipts (Q1, Mar)
- South Africa: Tourism & Migration, Export & Import Price Indexes (Feb), PPI (Mar); Kenya: GDP (2017)
- UK: RICS Commercial Market Survey (Q1) Mortgage and Consumer
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
Japan Shows Very Moderate Growth As Trade War Clouds Gather
Japan’s sector indexes showed a solid gain in February...
U.S. Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rose in April
The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index rose to 128.7 in April from 127.0 (initially reported as 127.7) in March...
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
by Tom Moeller August 4, 2016
Initial unemployment insurance claims increased to 269,000 (-1.8% y/y) during the week ended July 30 from an unrevised 266,000 in the prior week. Claims remained near the lowest level since 1973. The four-week moving average rose to 260,250. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 263,000 claims in the latest week. During the last ten years, there has been a 75% correlation between the level of claims and the m/m change in nonfarm payrolls.
Continuing claims for jobless benefits eased to 2.138 million (-5.4% y/y) from 2.144 million. The four-week moving average was little changed at 2.142 million, also near a four-decade low.
The insured rate of unemployment remained at 1.6%.
Insured rates of unemployment continued to vary across states. Near the low end of the range were North Carolina (0.68%), Florida (0.73%), Utah (0.69%), Indiana (0.76%), Virginia (0.83%) and Georgia (0.84%). At the high end of the scale were Texas (1.68%), Nevada (1.88%), Massachusetts (1.99%), Illinois (2.02%), Pennsylvania (2.59%) and New Jersey (2.73%). The state data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment insurance are contained in Haver's WEEKLY database and they are summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 07/30/16 | 07/23/16 | 07/16/16 | Y/Y | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 269 | 266 | 252 | -1.8% | 277 | 307 | 342 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 2,138 | 2,144 | -5.4 | 2,268 | 2,607 | 2,978 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.6 | 1.6 |
1.7 |
1.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 |