–Slight Increase Had Been Expected

By Denny Gulino and Brai Odion-Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment
benefits fell slightly instead of increasing as expected, down 1,000 to
a seasonally adjusted 368,000 in the May 5 week, the Labor Department
reported Thursday.

Economists surveyed by MNI had forecast a slight increase from the
originally reported level of 365,000 in the April 28 week, revised in
the latest report to 368,000.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors in
the state claims data for the current week and no states were estimated.

The analyst said seasonal factors had expected an increase of 1.9%
or 6,257 in the unadjusted level and instead got a 1.5% or 4,942 claim
increase and so after adjustment the level went down “just a bit.”

The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average was
379,000 in the latest week, a decrease of 5,250.

The state data released for the April 28 week indicated unadjusted
initial claims increased in 18 states and declined in 35 states with one
state unchanged. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin
Islands are included in this data.

Continuing claims in the April 28 week fell 61,000 to 3.229 million
after increasing the previous week.

Unadjusted continuing claims fell 99,210 to 3,193,787 in the April
28 week, still well below the 3,723,271 level in the comparable week a
year earlier.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate slipped a tenth
to 2.5% in the April 28 week, down from the 3.0% rate a year earlier.

The unemployment rate among the insured labor force is well below
that reported monthly by the Labor Department because claims are
approved for the most part only for job losers, not the job leavers and
labor force reentrants included in the monthly report.

The Labor Department said that the level of unadjusted Emergency
Unemployment Compensation benefits claims fell by 36,275 in the April 21
week, bringing that category total to 2,688,157. Extended benefits
claims fell by 4,304 to 350,579 not seasonally adjusted in the same
week.

The Labor Department reported that a total of 6,423,383 persons
claimed unemployment benefits in the April 21 week, a decline of 174,529
from the previous week and well below the 8,003,576 persons in the
comparable week a year ago. These data are not seasonally adjusted, and
include regular state claims, federal employee claims, new veterans
claims, the EUC and extended benefits programs, state additional
benefits, and STC/Workshare claims.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: MAUDS$,MT$$$$,M$U$$$,MAUDR$]