U.S. Unemployment Insurance Claims Decrease Moderately in Feb. 10 Week
Summary
- Initial claims down for a second week, reach lowest in four weeks
- Continuing claims up in the Feb. 3 week
- Insured unemployment rate ticked back up to 1.3%
Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased somewhat to 212,000 in the latest week, ended February 10, from 220,000 the week before; that February 3 amount was revised from 218,000. The latest amount was the lowest since 189,000 the week of January 13. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected the latest week to be 218,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims was 218,500 in the latest week, up from 212,750 the week before and the highest since the four weeks ended December 2, 2023, when it was 221,000.
Insured unemployment, also called continued weeks claimed, was 1.895 million in the February 3 week, up from 1.865 million in the prior week, which was revised from 1.871 million reported before. The four-week moving average of continuing claims was 1.870 million in the February 3 week, up from 1.848 million the prior week and the highest since 1.877 million in the second week of December.
The insured unemployment rate was 1.3% in the February 3 week, up from 1.2% in the January 27 week. This rate is the amount of continuing claims as a percentage of covered employment, which was 149.9 million.
Insured unemployment rates vary widely by states and territories. In the January 27 week, the highest rates were in New Jersey (2.83%), Rhode Island (2.72%), Minnesota (2.48%), Massachusetts (2.36%) and California (2.31%). The lowest rates were in Florida (0.39%), Virginia (0.40%), North Carolina (0.44%), Alabama (0.52%) and Kansas (0.53%). Rates in other major states include Illinois (2.30%), Connecticut and Pennsylvania (both 2.09%), New York (2.02%) and Texas (1.07%). These state rates are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment claims are from the Department of Labor itself, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They go back to 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.
Carol Stone, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Carol Stone, CBE came to Haver Analytics in 2003 following more than 35 years as a financial market economist at major Wall Street financial institutions, most especially Merrill Lynch and Nomura Securities. She has broad experience in analysis and forecasting of flow-of-funds accounts, the federal budget and Federal Reserve operations. At Nomura Securites, among other duties, she developed various indicator forecasting tools and edited a daily global publication produced in London and New York for readers in Tokyo. At Haver Analytics, Carol is a member of the Research Department, aiding database managers with research and documentation efforts, as well as posting commentary on select economic reports. In addition, she conducts Ways-of-the-World, a blog on economic issues for an Episcopal-Church-affiliated website, The Geranium Farm. During her career, Carol served as an officer of the Money Marketeers and the Downtown Economists Club. She has a PhD from NYU's Stern School of Business. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has a weekend home on Long Island.
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