Recent Updates
- US: Public Debt (Feb), Mfrs' Shipments Inventories & Orders (Jan), Productivity & Costs with Revisions (Q4)
- Global Sector PMIs (Feb)
- Canada: Labor Productivity & Unit Labor Cost (Q4)
- Philippines: Int'l Reserves & Foreign Currency Liquidity (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Rise Just 9,000
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose modestly by 9,000 to 745,000 in the week ended February 27...
U.S. Productivity's Decline Lessened in Q4'20; Reverses Q3 Increase
Revisions to nonfarm business sector productivity indicated a 4.2% decline during Q4'20...
EMU Unemployment Rate Steadies in January
The overall EMU unemployment rate was steady in January, off peak, but still elevated...
U.S. ADP Nonfarm Private Payroll Increase Disappoints in February
Job market strength moderated last month....
U.S. ISM Services Index Weakens in February
The ISM Composite Index of Services Activity declined to 55.3 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller October 20, 2005
Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped 35,000 to 355,000 last week versus a little revised level of 389,000 during the prior period. Consensus expectations had been for 370,000 claims.
The Labor Department indicated that 40,000 initial claims last week were linked to Hurricanes Katrina & Rita.
The latest figure covers the survey period for October nonfarm payrolls and initial claims fell 80,000 (18.4%) from the September period.
The four-week moving average of initial claims fell to 376,000 (+9.3% y/y) from 396,000 during the prior four weeks.
Continuing claims for unemployment insurance rose 35,000 following a deepened 12,000 worker decline during the prior week.
The insured rate of unemployment rose to 2.3% from 2.2% during the prior three weeks. The low in early September was 2.0%.
The latest Beige Book covering US regional economic conditions from the Federal Reserve Board can be found here.
Remarks by Fed Governor Donald L. Kohn titled The Economic Outlook are available here.
Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 10/15/05 | 10/08/05 | Y/Y | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 355 | 389 | 6.0% | 343 | 402 | 404 |
Hurricane Related Claims (000, NSA) | 40 | 75 | ||||
Continuing Claims | -- | 2,370 | 3.4% | 2,926 | 3,531 | 3,570 |