WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits declined to levels not seen since the start of this millennium, down 43,000 to 265,000 in the Jan. 24 week, and no anomalies were found in that data provided by states, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Analysts in an MNI survey expected claims to be fall by 7,000 from the 307,000 level initially reported for the previous week, a number that was revised up by 1,000 to 308,000.
The 265,000 claims level is the lowest since it came in at 259,000 in the April 15, 2000, week. The 43,000 plunge in jobless claims is the largest decline since it fell by 51,000 in the Nov. 17, 2012, week.
There were no special factors and no state results that had to be estimated. "We can't find anything that's amiss" in looking at the state-level data, a Labor Department analyst said. He did note that jobless claims are usually volatile coming off a federal holiday - in this case the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 19 - given that it is a shorter work week.
The seasonal adjustment factors for the week had expected a drop of 15%, or 57,297, in unadjusted claims. They instead fell by 26.8% (102,358) to 280,237. The current week's level is well below the 357,806 level in the same week a year ago.
The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average was down by 8,250 to 298,500 for the Jan. 24 week.
The level of continuing claims was 2,385,000 after seasonal adjustment in the Jan 17 employment survey week, a drop of 71,000 from the previous week's revised level.
In a survey week comparison, initial claims are 22,000 less when compared to the Dec. 13 survey week (2.407 million).
The level of unadjusted continuing claims plunged by 128,910 to 2,773,546 in the Jan. 17 week. The current week's level remains well below the 3,373,217 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The 4-week moving average for continuing claims increased 8,250 to 2,438,500.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment was unchanged at 1.8% compared to the previous week, and was still well below the seasonally adjusted 2.2% 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 reported that a total of 2,961,887 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the January 10 week, a decline of 87,774, and below the 3,565,172 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.
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