Global| Nov 05 2020Mixed U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Data: State Improving: PUA Worsening
Summary
• State initial claims continued their downward trend. • Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rose for third week. • Continuing claims fell for state and PUA, while PEUC continues upward march. Seasonally adjusted state [...]
• State initial claims continued their downward trend.
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance new filers rose for third week.
• Continuing claims fell for state and PUA, while PEUC continues upward march.
Seasonally adjusted state initial jobless claims for unemployment insurance declined to 751,000 in the week ending October 31 from an upwardly revised 758,000 in the previous week (was 751,000). This is the lowest level of claims since March 14. The Action Economics Forecast Survey anticipated 733,000. A change in the calculation of seasonal adjustment factors created a break in the series in late August. Though the current week-to-week comparison is valid, the comparison to before August 22 is not. For more details, please see the September 3 commentary on jobless claims.
The not seasonally adjusted data, which is comparable across all periods for initial claims edged down to 738,166 in the week ending October 31 from 738,709. Haver Analytics has calculated methodologically-consistent seasonally adjusted data which matches the Department of Labor seasonally adjusted data since the late-August break. The Haver seasonally adjusted series is also at its lowest level since March 14 (the not seasonally adjusted data is only a four-week low).
Claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which covers individuals such as the self-employed who are not qualified for regular/state unemployment insurance, increased for the third week in a row to 362,833; they had reached a six month low four weeks ago. Numbers for this and other federal programs are not seasonally adjusted.
Seasonally adjusted state continuing claims for unemployment insurance fell to 7.285 million in the week ending October 24, from 7.823 million. Haver Analytics methodologically-consistent seasonally adjusted continuing claims showed the same readings for those weeks and finds the October 24 number is the lowest level of continuing claims since late March. Not seasonally adjusted continuing claims dropped to 6.952 from 7.490 million, also the lowest since late March.
Continuing PUA claims, which are lagged an additional week and not seasonally adjusted, decreased to 9.333 million from 10.325 million, the lowest since early May. Meanwhile, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation claims continued their upward climb to a new high of 3.961 million in the week ending October 17. This program covers people who were unemployed before COVID but exhausted their state benefits and are now eligible to receive an additional 13 weeks of unemployment insurance, up to a total of 39 weeks.
The seasonally adjusted state insured rate of unemployment fell to 5.0% in the week ending October 24 from 5.3%. The not-seasonally-adjusted data dropped to 4.7% from 5.1%, the lowest since late March. This data does not include the federal pandemic assistance programs. If you include the latest data available, which is lagged one additional week, the total number of state, PUA and PEUC continuing claims declined to 20.2 million or 12.6% of the labor force. This is the lowest since late April.
The state insured rates of unemployment -- which do not include federal programs -- continued to show wide variation with both Idaho and South Dakota at just 1.1% and Hawaii at 11.3%, the only state now above 10%. The largest states ranged between 3.2% for Florida and 9.5% for California. The state rates are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment claims going back to 1967 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 Forecast Survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
| Unemployment Insurance (SA, 000s) | 10/31/20 | 10/24/20 | 10/17/20 | Y/Y % | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial Claims | 751 | 758 | 797 | 254 | 218 | 221 | 244 |
| Initial Claims (NSA) | 738 | 739 | 767 | 259 | 218 | 221 | 243 |
| Initial Claims Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (NSA) | 363 | 359 | 345 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Continuing Claims | -- | 7,285 | 7,823 | 330 | 1,701 | 1,756 | 1,961 |
| Continuing Claims (NSA) | -- | 6,952 | 7,490 | 388 | 1,704 | 1,763 | 1,964 |
| Continuing Claims Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (NSA) | -- | -- | 9,333 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 5.0 | 5.3 |
1.2 |
1.2 | 1.2 | 1.4 |
Gerald D. Cohen
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Gerald Cohen provides strategic vision and leadership of the translational economic research and policy initiatives at the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.
He has worked in both the public and private sectors focusing on the intersection between financial markets and economic fundamentals. He was a Senior Economist at Haver Analytics from January 2019 to February 2021. During the Obama Administration Gerald was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Macroeconomic Analysis at the U.S. Department of Treasury where he helped formulate and evaluate the impact of policy proposals on the U.S. economy. Prior to Treasury, he co-managed a global macro fund at Ziff Brothers Investments.
Gerald holds a bachelor’s of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and is a contributing author to 30-Second Money as well as a co-author of Political Cycles and the Macroeconomy.
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