–Labor Analyst:School Bus Drivers on Spring Break;Post Holid Wk Surge

By Denny Gulino and Brai Odion-Esene

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment
benefits rose 26,000 in the March 5 week to 397,000 adjusted, above
expectations but within the typical pattern for a post-holiday
spring-break week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.

The four-week moving average rose 3,000 to 392,250, while the
previous week’s claims were revised down to 371,000. The four-week
average was back to its level of mid February.

A Labor Department analyst said that the bump up in the week
was “very routine,” reflecting the school spring break in New
England when bus drivers and others are laid off as well as the
usual catchup surge after a week containing a holiday. Only Alaska
was estimated.

The week’s reverse upward interrupted an increasingly well-defined
downward direction on the chart of not-seasonally adjusted claims.

According to the analyst, seasonal factors had a 7.1% or 25,000
claim increase and instead got a 14.7% or 52,147 claim jump to 406,096,
but that did not necessarily reflect anything happening in the economy
at large.

Economists surveyed by Market News International had expected
initial claims to be 380,000 for the current week, up from the
downwardly revised 371,000 the previous week.

In the February 26 week, adjusted continuing claims fell by
20,000 to 3,771,000. Unadjusted continuing claims plunged 97,576
to 4,442.438, compared to the year earlier’s 5,538.966.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained 3.0% in
the February 26 week, compared to 3.6% 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 52,745 in the February
19 week, bringing that category to 3,600,522. Extended benefits claims
dropped 147,768 to 702,604 not seasonally adjusted in the same week.

The Labor Department reported that a total of 8,772,818 persons
claimed unemployment benefits in the February 19 week, down 463,351 from
the claims reported in the previous week, but well below the 11,420,313
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.

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

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