WASHINGTON — Initial claims U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 7,000 to 222,000 in the February 17 employment survey week, below the 230,000 level expected, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
Claims were up 6,000 from the level of 216,000 in the January 13 employment survey week, a small rise, with very little indication as to what the February payrolls will come in as on March 9.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of the data, fell by 2,250 to 226,000 in the February 17 week, down 17,500 from the 243,500 level in the January 13 survey week. 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 fall by 2,000 as the 230,000 level in the January 27 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 5.1%, or 11,927, in unadjusted claims in the week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell by 19,477 (8.4%) to 213,328. The current week's level is far below the 239,322 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims fell by 73,000 to 1.875 million in the February 10 week, possibly reflecting that laid off holiday workers are continuing to find new work, further indicating a tight labor market. This is the largest decline in at least the past year.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate dropped to 1.3% in the February 10 week, after rising and hovering to 1.4% for the last five weeks. The current week's rate is down from 1.5% 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.
