Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose 30,000 to 335,000 last week and reversed the little revised 23,000 decline the prior week. Consensus expectations had been for a lesser increase to 311,000 claims.

Hurricane related claims totaled 21,000 and brought the total of the three storms during the last twelve weeks to 582,000.

The four-week moving average of initial claims ticked up slightly to 323,250 (-2.5% y/y).

Continuing claims for unemployment insurance rose a sharp 59,000 following three successive weeks of decline.

The insured rate of unemployment held at 2.2% for the ninth consecutive week.

Minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee November 1, 2005 can be found here.

Estimating the "Neutral" Real Interest Rate in Real Time from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is available here.