Jobless claims dip in April 14 week; labor market remains tight

WASHINGTON — Initial claims U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 1,000 to 232,000 in the April 14 employment survey week, slightly above the 230,000 level expected by analysts in an MNI survey, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.

The level of claims is up 5,000 from the 227,000 level in the March 17 employment survey week, a slightly negative factor for April payrolls.

BB-042018-CLAIMS

The four-week moving average for initial claims, which tends to be a better measure of the underlying trend of the data, rose by 1,250 to 231,250 in the April 14 week, a fifth straight increase. Even so, the level of the four-week average remains very low.

If the number of headline claims does not change next week and there are no revisions to data from the past four weeks, the four-week average will rise by 3,500 as the 218,000 level in the March 24 week rolls out of the calculation.

Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 2.2%, or 5,134, in unadjusted claims. Instead, unadjusted claims fell by 6,180 (2.7%) to 225,545. The current week's level was only slightly below the 225,864 level in the comparable week a year ago.

The only states where claims were estimated were Colorado and Maine. However, the claims taking procedures in the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have still not returned to normal.

The level of continuing claims fell by 15,000 to 1.863 million in the April 7 week after rising by 60,000 in the previous week. Continuing claims have seen a see-saw pattern in recent months.

Before seasonal adjustment, continuing claims fell by 74,700 to 1.927 million, well below the 2.042 million level seen in the comparable week last year.

The four-week average for continuing claims, a more reliable measure when the continuing claims are rapidly moving week-to-week, rose by 6,750 to 1.859 million.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.3% in the April 7 week, down from 1.4% in the same 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.

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