Recent Updates
- US: New Res Sales (Mar), S&P Case Shiller Home Price Indexes, FHFA HPI (Feb), Final Building Permits (Mar)
- US: Steel Imports (Mar-Prelim)
- US: Richmond Fed Mfg & Service Sector Surveys (Apr)
- US: Consumer Confidence (Apr)
- Belgium: Business Confidence (Apr)
- US: Regional Building Permits (Mar and YTD)
- Ireland: Bank Lending Survey (Q2)
- France: BdF Bank Lending Survey (Q2)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Existing Home Sales & Prices Rise Again
The NAR reported that sales of existing homes increased 1.1% during March (-1.2% y/y) to 5.600 million units (AR)...
PMIs Stabilize or Creep Higher After Drop-Off
In the EMU, both the services and manufacturing sectors took a substantial step down one month ago...
FIBER: Industrial Commodity Prices Strengthen Selectively
The FIBER Industrial Materials Price Index increased 0.4% during the last four weeks...
German PPI Accelerates
The German year-on-year PPI has generally been decelerating since early 2017...
U.S. Leading Economic Indicators Signal Continued Expansion
The Conference Board's Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators increased 0.3% during March...
by Tom Moeller March 4, 2010
Today's
Labor Department report indicated that initial claims for jobless
insurance fell 29,000 last week to 469,000 from an upwardly revised
498,000 during the prior week. Claims rose slightly for the full month
but remained down from the recession peak of 674,000 hit last March.
Moreover, claims remained near the lowest level since January 2009. The
weekly decline in claims slightly exceeded Consensus expectations for a
drop to 475,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims slipped
to 470,750.
Continuing claims for unemployment insurance during the latest week fell to a new cycle-low and were down by one-third since late-June. The overall decline is a function of the improved job market but also reflects the exhaustion of 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. Continuing claims provide an indication of workers' ability to find employment. The four-week average of continuing claims fell to a cycle low of 4,575,750. This series dates back to 1966.
Extended benefits for unemployment insurance dropped sharply to another cycle low of 178,469. They were down by two-thirds from a peak of 597,688 reached in November.
The insured rate of unemployment slipped to 3.5% from an upwardly revised 3.6% during the prior week. The rate reached a high of 5.2% during late-June. During the last ten years, there has been a 93% correlation between the level of the insured unemployment rate and the overall rate of unemployment published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending February 14 were in Alaska (7.4% percent), Oregon (6.4), Idaho (6.3), Montana (6.3), Wisconsin (6.2), Michigan (5.8), Nevada (5.7), Pennsylvania (6.4), and North Carolina (5.4). The lowest insured unemployment rates were in Virginia (2.3), Texas (2.4), Florida (3.2), Georgia (3.4), Mississippi (3.6), Wyoming (3.7), Ohio (3.8), Maryland (3.9), Indiana (4.0), New York (4.1) and Maine (4.4). These data are not seasonally adjusted but the overall insured unemployment rate is.
The unemployment insurance claims data is available in Haver's WEEKLY database and the state data is in the REGIONW database.
Changes in the Aggregate Labor Force Participation Rate from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta is available here.


Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 2/27/10 | 2/20/10 | 2/13/10 | Y/Y | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 469 | 498 | 474 | -27.1% | 573 | 419 | 321 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 4,500 | 4,634 | -11.3% | 5,835 | 3,345 | 2,552 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 3.5 | 3.6 | 4.3 (3/2009) | 4.4 | 2.5 | 1.9 |