U.S. Jobless Claims Fell in April 20 Week
by:Sandy Batten
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Lowest weekly filings since week of February 17.
- Continued claims fell to lowest level since January 13.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance unexpectedly fell to 207,000 seasonally adjusted in the week ended April 20 with the 212,000 claims reported in the previous week unrevised. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected the latest week to be 215,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims fell to 213,250 from 214,500 in the previous week. Since the middle of September 2023, weekly claims have been fluctuating between 194,000 and 228,000, indicating that the labor market remains historically tight.
Insured unemployment, also known as continued weeks claimed, was 1.781 million in the week ended April 13, the lowest reading since January 13 and down from 1.796 million in the prior week. The earlier week was revised down from 1.812 million reported previously. As with initial claims, continuing claims have hovered in a narrow range for an extended period—between 1.728 million and 1.829 million since May 2023.
The insured unemployment rate, that is, the amount of insured unemployment as a percentage of covered employment, was unchanged at 1.2% in the April 13 week. It has been at that level continually since March 11, 2023.
Unemployment insurance rates vary widely across individual states. In the week ended April 6, the highest rates were in New Jersey (2.72%), California (2.25%), Rhode Island (2.10%), Minnesota (2.05%) and Massachusetts (2.02%). The lowest rates were in Kansas (0.33%), Florida (0.37%), Alabama (0.41%), North Carolina (0.41%) and Virginia (0.41%). Among other notable states, Illinois (1.92%), New York (1.85%), Pennsylvania (1.71%), Texas (0.95%) and Ohio (0.87%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment claims are from the Department of Labor, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They begin in 1967 and are contained in Haver’s WEEKLY database and summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW back to December 1986. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey in the AS1REPNA database.
Sandy Batten
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Sandy Batten has more than 30 years of experience analyzing industrial economies and financial markets and a wide range of experience across the financial services sector, government, and academia. Before joining Haver Analytics, Sandy was a Vice President and Senior Economist at Citibank; Senior Credit Market Analyst at CDC Investment Management, Managing Director at Bear Stearns, and Executive Director at JPMorgan. In 2008, Sandy was named the most accurate US forecaster by the National Association for Business Economics. He is a member of the New York Forecasters Club, NABE, and the American Economic Association. Prior to his time in the financial services sector, Sandy was a Research Officer at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Senior Staff Economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the US Treasury, and Economist at the International Monetary Fund. Sandy has taught economics at St. Louis University, Denison University, and Muskingun College. He has published numerous peer-reviewed articles in a wide range of academic publications. He has a B.A. in economics from the University of Richmond and a M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from The Ohio State University.
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