Recent Updates
- Belgium: Business Survey (Feb)
- Canada: Retail Trade (Dec)
- Canada Regional: Retail Trade by Province (Dec)
- Chile: Producer Price Index (Jan)
- Hungary: Construction Permits (Dec)
- North Macedonia: Depository Corporations Survey (Jan)
- Euro area: Final HICP (Jan)
- Slovenia: Construction Survey (Feb)
- Serbia: PPI Industrial Prices (Jan)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Durable Goods Report: Strong Headline, Weaker Details
New orders for durable goods increased 1.2% (3.5% year-on-year) during December following an upwardly-revised 1.0% gain...
U.S. Existing Home Sales Continue to Slide
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes fell a greater-than-expected 1.2% in January...
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Tumbles in February
The Philadelphia Federal Reserve reported manufacturing conditions weakened considerably in February with its General Factory Sector Business Conditions Index...
U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Decline
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 216,000 in the week ended February 16, down 23,000 from the previous week's...
EMU PMIs Continue to Move Together...Mostly Lower
The composite EMU German and French indices all rose by small amounts...
by Tom Moeller September 29, 2016
Initial claims for jobless insurance increased to 254,000 (-8.3% y/y) in the week ended September 24 from 251,000 in the prior week, revised from 252,000. The figure remained near the lowest level since October 1973. The four-week moving average eased to 256,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 259,000 claims in the latest week. During the last ten years, there has been a 75% correlation between the level of claims and the monthly change in nonfarm payrolls.
Continuing claims for jobless benefits fell 2.2% to 2.062 million (-6.6% y/y) in the week ended September 17. The four-week moving average fell to 2.115 million, near a four-decade low.
The insured rate of unemployment was stable at 1.5%, near the record low.
Insured rates of unemployment across states continue to be quite disparate. The state data are not seasonally adjusted and are reported with a two-week lag. For the week ended September 10, the lowest rates were in South Dakota (0.28%), Nebraska (0.39%), North Carolina (0.60%), Utah (0.60%), Maine (0.73%) and South Carolina (0.81%). The highest rates were found in Massachusetts (1.68%), Illinois (1.85%), Pennsylvania (2.04%), Connecticut (2.08%), New Jersey (2.35%) and Alaska (2.60%).
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.
All Layoffs Are Not Created Equal from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia can be found here here.
Unemployment Insurance (000s) | 09/24/16 | 09/17/16 | 09/10/16 | Y/Y % | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 254 | 251 | 260 | -8.3 | 277 | 307 | 342 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 2,062 | 2,108 | -6.6 | 2,268 | 2,607 | 2,978 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.5 | 1.5 |
1.6 |
1.7 | 2.0 | 2.3 |