WASHINGTON — The level of initial jobless claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 36,000 to 280,000 in the September 13 employment survey week, a much larger drop than expected, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase of 37,277, or 15.9% in unadjusted claims in the September 13 week after a holiday-related decline in the previous week. Instead, unadjusted claims rose only 6,358, or 2.7% to 241,074. The smaller-than-expected rebound followed a more modest decline in the holiday week than seasonal factors had expected that week.
Expectations for this week's report was for a claims level of 305,000, which would have been a 10,000 decrease from the originally reported 315,000 level in the September 6 week. That week's level was revised up very slightly to 316,000.
The September 13 week level was down 19,000 from the 299,000 level reported in the August 16 employment survey week and was the lowest since 279,000 in the July 19 week.
The initial claims seasonally adjusted four week moving average fell by 4,750 to 299,500 in the September 13 week after rising by 1,000 in the previous week. The moving average was only modestly below the 301,000 reported in the August 16 survey week, suggesting little change when the holiday volatility is smoothed out.
The Labor Department said there were no special factors impacting the data this week.
The level of continuing claims came in at 2.429 million after seasonal adjustment in the September 6 week, a decline of 63,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since 2.417 million in the May 19, 2007 week.
The level of unadjusted continuing claims fell by 48,227 to 2,164,511 in the September 6 week, and was still down considerably from the 2,499,855 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 1.8% in the September 6 week from 1.9% in the August 30 week, and was down from the 2.2% rate in the comparable week a year ago. The current week's level was the lowest since November 2006.
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 2,264,224 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the August 30 week, a decline of 110,090 from the previous week. The current week's level is well below the 3,891,893 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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