WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell more than expected in the July 27 week to their lowest level in five and a half years, declining by 19,000 to 326,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
This is the lowest level since the week of January 19, 2008, when it came in at 321,000.
Expectations for this week's report was for a claims level of 345,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previously reported 343,000 level in July 20 week. Claims in that week were revised up to a 345,000 level.
A Labor Department analyst said no states were estimated in the current week. As for the volatility common to July data, "that's still true," he said.
"How much longer is it going to last? I'm not sure," the Labor Department analyst added.
The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average fell 4,500 to 341,250 in the July 27 week.
The analyst said that seasonal adjustment factors had expected a 13% drop in unadjusted claims, around 44,000, in the July 27 week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell 17.7%, or 60,084, to 279,869. That level is below the 312,931 level reported in the comparable week a year ago.
The state data released for the July 20 survey week indicated unadjusted initial claims increased in just seven states and declined in 45 states, with only one state unchanged. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands are included in this data.
The level of continuing claims came in at 2.951 million after seasonal adjustment in the July 20 week, a decline of 52,000 from the previous week.
The level of unadjusted continuing claims plunged 126,553 to 2,927,554 in the July 20 week, below the 3,246,888 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment was unchanged at 2.3% in the July 20 week from the previous week, remaining below the seasonally adjusted 2.6% rate in the comparable week 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 the level of unadjusted Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits claims fell 49,668 to 1,564,517 in the July 13 employment survey week.
The Labor Department reported that a total of 4,695,366 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the July 13 week, a decline of 154,140 from the previous week, and below the 5,964,451 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 is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See
