Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits slipped 3,000 to 336,000 in the Feb. 15 week, within the range in which claims have settled since late December, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The expectation for this week's report was for a claims level of 335,000, which would have been slightly below the total for the previous week, 339,000, which was not revised.
The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average rose 1,750 to 338,500 from the previous week's 336,750, which was also unrevised.
The report said there was nothing unusual in the underlying state data for the week and no state was estimated.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a 9.1% decrease of 32,498 claims and instead got a 9.8% decline of 35,008 in the unadjusted totals for the latest week.
The state data released for the Feb. 8 week indicated unadjusted initial claims had increased in 27 states and declined in 26 states, The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands are included in this data. The state-by-state comments showed the usual pattern of layoffs fluctuating small amounts in manufacturing, construction and retail trade for the most part. New Jersey had reported fewer layoffs as well in health care and social assistance.
Since the Dec. 21 week, which came in with 341,000 claims, the totals have bumped up and down between a high of 348,000 in the Jan. 25 week, to a low of 325,000 in the Jan. 11 week. More broadly, the week's 336,000 total is not far from what have been the reports for the entire previous year.
The level of continuing claims for the Feb. 8 week came in at 2,981,000, an increase of 37,000 seasonally adjusted.
The level of unadjusted continuing claims was 3,440,333, a decrease of 12,426 and well under the year-ago level of 3,668,711.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate in the Feb. 8 week bounced back up a tenth to 2.3% from the previous week, also well below the 2.5% rate a year ago. The unadjusted insured unemployment rate was a tenth higher at 2.6%.
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 reported that a total of 3,525,006 persons claimed unemployment benefits in the Feb. 1 week, an increase of 7,100. That compared to the year-earlier level of 5,581,677. 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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