WASHINGTON – Initial jobless claims increased to a seasonally adjusted 482,000 for the week ending Jan. 16, the largest number of initial claims since November, attributed to Monday's federal holiday and an "administrative backload" at the state level lingering from the holiday season, the Labor Department reported today.
Continuing claims decreased for the fifth consecutive week to 4.599 million for the week ending Jan. 9, the lowest level in a year. Continuing claims for the week ending Jan. 2 were revised higher to 4.617 million from 4.596 million.
Economists expected 440,000 initial jobless claims and 4.6 million continuing claims, according to the median estimate from Thomson Reuters.
A Labor Department official said the increase in initial claims was partly due to Monday's federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Initial claims data were estimated for seven states, including four states that provided no data, meaning the Labor Department estimated those states' initial claims.
The increase in claims was also attributable to an "administrative backload," the Labor Department official said. Initial claims are typically higher in the first two weeks of January before leveling off. This means that the initial claims figure might be influenced by administrative, rather than economic, factors, the official said.
Initial claims for the week ending Jan. 9 were revised higher to 446,000 from 444,000.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, a less volatile figure, increased to 448,250 from 441,250 in the previous week. The moving average for continuing claims decreased to 4.750 million from 4.860 million.
