Finance Globe

U.S. financial and economic topics from several finance writers.
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Initial Jobless Claims Drop

The number of newly laid off workers filing for unemployment benefits for the first time has dropped slightly from the week before, the government reported Thursday.

Initial claims for unemployment in the week ending August 22 was a seasonally-adjusted 570,000, down 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 580,000. The four-week moving average - which smooths out weekly volatility - was 566,250, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week's revised average of 571,000. The advance seasonally-adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.6% for the week ending August 15 - down .1% from the previous week.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 15 was 6,133,000, a decrease of 119,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 6,252,000. The four-week moving average was 6,241,750, a decrease of 27,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,268,750.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.583 million.

The highest insured unemployment rate in the U.S. in the week ending August 8 was in Puerto Rico at 7.3%, followed by Oregon at 6.1% and Pennsylvania at 6%. Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina also had insured unemployment rates of 5% or more.

Michigan had the largest increase in initial claims in the week ending August 15 due to continued layoffs in the automobile industry - with 4,068 more claims than in the previous week. Pennsylvania had an increase of 1,193 from the previous week, and Florida had an increase of 1,148 from the previous week.

The largest decrease in initial claims in the week ending August 15 was in California - citing fewer layoffs in the service industry - with 6,286 fewer claims than the week before. Tennessee followed with 2,999 fewer claims, Texas with 2,557 fewer claims, Wisconsin with 2,075 fewer claims, and Ohio with 1,918 fewer claims than the previous week.




Sources:
U.S. Department of Labor - Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Sunday, 22 December 2024

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