WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims dropped 42,000 to 415,000 for the week ending Jan. 29, the lowest level in four weeks, as unemployment offices returned to normal following a spike a week earlier as unemployment offices reopened after being shut by winter weather, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
Continuing jobless claims fell to 3.925 million, a decrease of 84,000.
Economists expected 420,000 initial claims and 3.95 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending Jan. 22 were revised to 457,000 from 454,000 reported last week. Continuing claims were revised to 4.009 million from 3.991 million for the week ending Jan. 15.
Part of the drop in initial claims for the week of Jan. 29 is attributable to weather conditions in the Southeast. For the week ending Jan. 22, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina reported a spike in initial claims once their offices reopened after winter storms. Georgia alone reported an increase of more than 10,000 initial claims for that week.
Now, those states are seeing the initial claims volume return to normal, a Labor Department official said.
Severe winter weather will continue to affect initial claims data following storms across much of the country this week. Regional unemployment offices in Dallas, Chicago and Boston reported they closed or had limited hours so far this week, the Labor official said.
The four-week moving average of initial claims, a less volatile figure, increased to 430,500 from 429,500. The four-week average for continuing claims fell to 3.930 million from 3.980 million.
