WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims decreased 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 470,000 for the week ending Jan. 23 from a downwardly revised 478,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department reported today.
Continuing claims fell by 57,000 to a seasonally adjusted 4.602 million for the week ending Jan. 16. Continuing claims for the week ending Jan. 9 were revised higher to 4.659 million from the 4.599 million initially reported.
Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 450,000 initial claims and 4.60 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate.
Initial claims for the week ending Jan. 16 were revised lower from 482,000.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile figure, increased to 456,250 from 446,750 for last week. The average for continuing claims fell to 4.669 million from 4.764 million, the 17th consecutive weekly decrease.
Last week, the Labor Department reported that an "administrative backload" following the holiday season combined with last week's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday contributed to an increase in initial claims.
Initial claims are typically higher the first two weeks of January before leveling off, a Labor Department official said last week.
California reported 43,748 initial claims for the week ending Jan. 16, the largest among states, because of a claims backlog. However, 30 other states reported a decrease of more than 1,000 for that week.
