Jobless Claims Rise 13,000 to 260,000 in Oct. 15 Week

WASHINGTON – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 13,000 to a higher-than-expected level of 260,000 in the Oct. 15 employment survey week, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.

Claims were at a level of 251,000 in the Sept. 17 employment survey week, so the modest month-on-month increase could be small negative factor for September payrolls.

Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 7.2% or 17,059 unadjusted claims in the current week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell by only 5,400 to 233,181. The current week's unadjusted level was slightly ahead of the 232,860 level in the comparable week a year ago.

The Labor Department said there were no special factors in this week's claims data and no state claims data had to be estimated. The Oct. 15 week included the Columbus Day holiday and started with Hurricane Matthew hitting the Southeast, but there did not seem to be a clear impact from either.

The advance states data, which are unadjusted, showed decreases in 36 states or territories and gains in 17 states or territories. The key outliers were large declines in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Missouri and large gains in Kentucky, California, and North Carolina. While some of the 2,520 gain in North Carolina may have been due to the storm, the movements in Florida (+330), Georgia (-625), and South Carolina (+827) were modest.

The four-week moving average for initial claims rose by 2,250 to 251,750, the first increase after eight straight declines. If the headline number of claims does not change next week, the average will rise further when a 254,000 level in the Sept. 24 week rolls out of the calculation, but would remain extremely low.

The level of continuing claims rose by 7,000 to 2.057 million in the Oct. 8 week. Before seasonal adjustment, continuing claims for the Oct. 8 week fell by only 827 to 1.709 million. This level was still well below the 1.827 million level seen in the comparable week a year ago.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.5% in the Oct. 8 week, down from 1.6% 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.

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.
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