WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits jumped more than expected in the January 26 week, up 38,000 to 368,000 after plunging to its lowest level in five years in the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Forecasts in a MNI survey of economists had centered around a rebound in jobless claims to 360,000. The initially reported 330,000 claims level for the January 19 week was unrevised.
A Labor Department analyst said no states were estimated, with "absolutely nothing unusual" in the underlying data.
Seasonal adjustment factors expected unadjusted claims to drop by 24.8% or 108,000 in the January 26 week, continuing the descent from their yearly high in the Jan. 12 week.
Instead, unadjusted claims fell 16.1% or 70,429 to 366,596. The lesser-than-expected drop caused the seasonally adjusted value to rise, the Labor Dept. analyst said.
"Patterns over the last few years show this week as a decline, but the volume was not there," he said.
The state data released for the January 19 week indicated unadjusted initial claims increased in 3 states and declined in 50 states, with no states unchanged. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands are included in this data.
The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average was 352,000 in the January 26 week, a small increase of 250 from the previous week.
The level of continuing claims came in at 3.197 million after seasonal adjustment in the January 19 week, an increase of 22,000 from the previous week.
The level of unadjusted continuing claims fell by 54,066 to 3,656,964 in the week, and remains below the 4,058,236 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 2.5% from the prior week, and remains below the seasonally adjusted 2.8% rate 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 by 418,762 in the January 12 week, bringing that category's total to 2,112,559.
Extended benefits claims dipped by 540 to 657 in the December January 12 week — the program has ended.
The Labor Department reported that a total of 5,914,983 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the January 12 week, an increase of 255,501 from the previous week but still below the 7,655,224 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.
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