WASHINGTON - Initial claims for unemployment insurance gained 10,000 to 424,000 in the week ending May 21, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the report from the Labor Department Thursday.
A revised 414,000 new claims were made in the week ending May 14.
Continuing claims reported Thursday were 3.690 million for the May 14 week, down from the revised 3.736 million for the previous week.
Economists were looking for 400,000 new claims based on the median estimate of the Thomson Reuters poll and 3.700 million continuing claims. This week's report did not suggest the labor market improvement most were expecting.
The less volatile four-week moving average of new claims for the May 21 week was 438,500, down from the revised 440,250. The four-week moving average for continuing claims for the May 14 week was 3.742 million, revised up from the preceding week's average of 3.735 million.
In this week's report, six states said they had a drop of more than 1,000 new claims. Two states, California and Michigan reported drops of more than 6,000 claims each. California said the decline was in service industries. Michigan said it was fewer layoffs in the auto industry.
A Labor Department official said no states cited bad weather as a reason for new claims in this advance report, but such claims may show up in the revisions reported next week.
