Initial Jobless Claims Up 11,000 to 315,000 in Week Ended Sept. 6

WASHINGTON — The level of initial jobless claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose 11,000 to 315,000 in the first week of September and marked the highest reading since the last week in June, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Expectations for this week's report was for a claims level of 300,000, which would have been a decrease of 2,000 claims from the August 30 week which was revised up by 2,000 claims to 304,000.

The combination of higher claims in the latest week and an upward revision to the previous week pushed the seasonally adjusted four week moving average up by 750 to 304,000.

The Labor Department said there were no special factors impacting the data.

Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 24,006 claims or 9.6% in the September 6 week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell by 15,377, or 6.2% to 234,403 and since unadjusted claims did not fall by as much as expected, seasonally adjusted claims rose.

The level of continuing claims came in at 2.487 million after seasonal adjustment in the August 30 week, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week.

The level of unadjusted continuing claims fell by 110,498 to 2,208,740 in the August 30 week, and is below the 2,401,625 million level in the comparable week a year ago.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.9% in the August 30 week, and is down from the 2.2% in the comparable week a year ago.

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 2,374,314 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the August 23 week, a decline of 81,090 from the previous week. The current week's level is well below the 4,265,729 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 www.marketnews.com.

Market News International is a real-time global news service for fixed-income and foreign exchange market professionals. See www.marketnews.com.
MORE FROM BOND BUYER