WASHINGTON – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 to 234,000, the lowest in six weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The claims total for the week ended April 8 was well below the 245,000 expected and not far from the low for the past year, the Feb. 25 week's 227,000.
The previous week's claims total was also originally 234,000 but was revised up 1,000.
The seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average dropped 3,000 to 247,250. Continuing claims for the April 1 week fell 7,000 to 2.028 million and the insured unemployment rate stayed at 1.5%.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase in unadjusted claims of 15.4% or 32,167 and instead got a 15.1% or 31,443 increase. A year earlier total adjusted claims had been 258,000.
The insured unemployment rate stayed at 1.5% and the unadjusted rate slipped a tenth to also be 1.5%.
Only Louisiana's total had to be estimated for the week.
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.
