Initial Jobless Claims Drop 16,000 to 339,000 in Week Ended April 20

WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell more than expected in the April 20 week, declining by 16,000 to 339,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

Expectations for this week's report were for a claims level of 350,000, a decline of 2,000 from the previously reported 352,000 level in April 13 week. The initial claims level in that week was revised up to 355,000.

The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average fell 4,500 to 357,500 in the April 20 week, the first decline after four increases.

A Labor Department analyst said that there were no states estimated and nothing unusual in the state level data. The analyst added that initial claims are following their usual seasonal pattern.

The analyst said that seasonal adjustment factors had expected a 5.5% decline in unadjusted claims, or roughly 20,000, in the April 20 week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell 9.7%, or 34,690, to 323,529. That level is below the 370,632 level reported in the comparable week a year ago.

The state data released for the April 13 week indicated unadjusted initial claims increased in 26 states and declined in 27 states, with no states unchanged. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands are included in this data. The largest increase that week was in California, which reported rising layoffs in the service industry.

The level of continuing claims came in at 3.000 million after seasonal adjustment in the April 13 employment survey week, a decline of 93,000 from the previous week and the lowest level since the May 10, 2008 week, when the level was 2.997 million. Continuing claims were at a level of 3.070 million in the March 16 employment survey week.

The level of unadjusted continuing claims fell 104,847 to 3,096,372 in the April 13 week, well below the 3,425,138 level in the comparable week a year ago.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 2.3% in the April 13 week from 2.4% in the previous week, and is at its lowest level since the July 12, 2008 week. The rate was 2.6% in the comparable 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.

The Labor Department said that the level of unadjusted Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits claims rose 7,761 to 1,790,316 in the April 6 week.

The Labor Department reported that a total of 5,071,050 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the April 6 survey week, an 81,605 decline from the previous week, and still well below the 6,683,265 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.

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