·
Initial claims for unemployment insurance inched up 1,000 to 329,000
last week following a little revised 7,000 increase the prior week.
Consensus expectations had been for 320,000 claims.
· Hurricane related claims dropped to 3,000 and brought the total of the three storms during the last fifteen weeks to 603,000.
· The four-week moving average of initial claims rose slightly to 328,750 (-1.9% y/y).
· Continuing unemployment insurance claims rose 21,000 following a revised 156,000 decline the prior week which was deeper than initially reported.
· The insured rate of unemployment was
stable at 2.0%.