By Brai Odion-Esene and Kevin Kastner

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment
benefits rose by 12,000 to 465,000 in the Sept. 18 week after seasonal
adjustment, fed by claims pushed forward from the prior holiday week,
the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

Economists surveyed by Market News International had expected
initial claims to remain at 450,000 in the current week, unchanged from
the originally reported previous week’s total, now revised upward by
3,000. The expectations ranged from 445,000 to 475,000.

Nebraska was the only state estimated, the Labor Department analyst
said, as they failed to submit any data.

For the latest week the seasonal factors expected an increase in
unadjusted claims of 27,000 or 7.9% and instead rose by 37,705 claims,
or 11%, to 379,369 he said.

Noting the prior week contained a federal holiday, the analyst said
claims normally go down in those weeks and then rise in the week after.
“That’s why the seasonal factors are expecting an increase this week.”

Since the actual number of claims rose higher than the seasonal
factors had expected, “our seasonally adjusted level is going up just a
bit this week,” he concluded.

The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week average fell 3,250 to
463,250, the lowest since the end of July and its fourth consecutive
decline.

In an employment survey week comparison, claims are down 39,000 vs.
the August 14 week level of 504,000.

In the Sept. 11 week, continuing claims fell by 48,000 to
4,489,000, the lowest since the Aug. 21 week. Unadjusted continuing
claims fell 42,132 to 3,891,808, well under the 5,223,904 of a year
earlier.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate edged back down a
tenth to 3.5% in the Sept. 11 week, down 1.1 points from 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 rose by 113,785 in the
September 4 week, bringing that category to 4,222,314. Extended benefits
claims were up 94,183 to 949,807 not seasonally adjusted.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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