WASHINGTON - Initial jobless claims increased by 11,000 to 531,000 in the week ending Oct. 17, as continuing claims fell for the fifth straight week, the Labor Department reported today.
Workers filing for continuing unemployment claims fell by 98,000 to 5.923 million in the week ending Oct. 10, the lowest number of continuing claims since Jan. 17.
Economists expected 515,000 initial claims and 5.960 continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
Initial claims for the week ending Oct. 10 were revised higher to 520,000 from the initially reported 514,000 and continuing claims were revised higher to 6.021 million for the week ending Oct 3.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, a less volatile measure, dropped to 532,250 and has fallen for seven consecutive weeks. The four-week average for continuing claims fell to 6.030 million and has declined for five consecutive weeks.
"The now declining trends of both jobless claims and continuing claims suggest that a peaking of the unemployment rate may be closer than commonly thought," said John Lonski, an economist with Moody's Investors Service, in a research report last week. He noted that the percent of eligible workers receiving unemployment benefits has eased since June while the unemployment rate climbed to 9.8% in September. The number of workers eligible for claims versus those who have applied has also declined. If the downward trend in claims persists, the rising unemployment rate "will soon come to an end," he said.
Initial claims were estimated for the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands, a Labor Department official said. Florida reported the largest increase in initial claims with 9,976 in the week ending Oct. 10.
