U.S. Unemployment Claims Fall
by:Sandy Batten
|in:Economy in Brief
Summary
- Initial claims fell 5,000 to 180,000.
- Continued weeks claimed also eased to lowest in more than 50 years.
- Insured unemployment rate retained record low of 1.0%.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance filed in the week ended April 23 fell by 5,000 to 180,000 (-68.6% y/y) from a slightly upwardly revised 185,000 in the previous week (initially 184,000). The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 180,000 claims for the latest week. The 4-week moving average of initial claims increased to 179,750 from 177,500 in the prior week.
In the week ended April 16, continued weeks claimed for unemployment insurance fell to 1.408 million from 1.409 million in the previous week (initially reported as 1.417 million). This was the lowest reading since February 7, 1970. The insured unemployment rate retained the record low of 1.0% reached in the prior week.
In the week ended April 9, the number of continued weeks claimed in all unemployment insurance programs continued to fall, declining to 1.516 million from 1.621 in the prior week. This total includes federal employees, newly discharged veterans, extended benefits and other specialized programs and is not seasonally adjusted. Claims in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation are no longer included in the main Labor Department press release, since both programs have expired.
The state insured rates of unemployment in regular programs vary widely. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 9 were in California (2.21%), New Jersey (2.15%), Alaska (1.87%), Minnesota (1.79%) and New York (1.64%). The lowest rates were in Utah (0.18%), Virginia (0.19%), Alabama (0.19%), North Carolina (0.29%), Kansas (0.30%) and Nebraska (0.31%). Other state insured rates of unemployment in regular programs include Illinois (1.50%), Pennsylvania (1.32%), Texas (0.75%) and Florida (0.38%). These 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 and is 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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