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Economy in Brief
U.S. New Home Sales and Prices Strengthen
Sales of new single-family homes during March increased 4.0% (8.8% y/y) to 694,000 (SAAR)...
U.S. FHFA House Price Index Continues to Strengthen
The FHFA index of U.S. house prices rose 0.6% during February...
U.S. Energy Prices Rise Further
Retail gasoline prices increased to $2.80 per gallon last week (14.3% y/y)...
Italian Confidence Backtracks But Remains High-Valued As It Is for France and Germany
From Q1 2008 to date, Italian GDP actually has failed to grow and has declined by 5.8%...
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)...
by Tom Moeller April 2, 2015
Initial unemployment insurance claims in the week ended March 28 declined to 268,000 (-18.5% y/y) from 288,000 during the prior week, revised from 282,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims fell to 285,500, the lowest level in six weeks. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 285,000 claims in the latest week. During the last ten years, there has been a 76% correlation between the level of initial claims and the m/m change in nonfarm payrolls.
Continuing claims for unemployment insurance in the week ended March 21 declined to 2.325 million (-17.2% y/y), the lowest level since January 2007. The four-week moving average fell to 2.388 million but has trended sideways since January.
The insured rate of unemployment fell to 1.7%, its lowest level since November 2000.
By state, in the week ended March 14, the insured rate of unemployment continued to vary greatly with Florida (0.86%), North Carolina (0.96%), Georgia (0.98%), Louisiana (1.13%), Arizona (1.14%) and New Hampshire (1.24%) at the low end of the range. At the high end were Nevada (2.40%), Maine (2.47%), Michigan (2.49%), California (2.98%), Massachusetts (3.03%) and New Jersey (3.52%). These data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment insurance are contained in Haver's WEEKLY database and they are summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 03/28/15 | 03/21/15 | 03/14/15 | Y/Y % | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 268 | 288 | 293 | -18.5 | 309 | 343 | 374 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 2,325 | 2,413 | -17.2 | 2,599 | 2,978 | 3,319 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.7 | 1.8 | 2.2 (03/14) |
2.0 | 2.3 | 2.6 |