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Economy in Brief
U.S. Wholesale Inventories Post Strong February Gain; Sales Fall
Wholesale inventories increased 0.6% (2.0% y/y) during February...
U.S. Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Unexpectedly Increase
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 744,000 during the week ended April 3...
Total PMIs Gain Traction in March
The PMI readings for March show improvement again...
U.S. Consumer Credit Outstanding Bounces Back in February
Consumer credit outstanding surged $27.6 billion during February...
U.S. Trade Deficit Widens to Record during February
The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services widened to $71.1 during February...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Carol Stone, CBE February 28, 2019 Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 225,000 in the week ended February 23, up 8,000 from the previous week's 217,000; that figure was revised up by 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey projected 221,000 claims this week. Even with the latest weekly increase, the four-week moving average of initial claims fell back from the prior week's 13-month high of 236,000 to 229,000.
At the same time, continuing claims for unemployment insurance rose to 1.805 million in the February 16 week from 1.726 million the week before; that earlier figure was revised up by 1,000. The latest is the largest number of claimants in a single week since last April 14. The four-week moving average of continuing claims increased from 1.755 million in the February 9 week to 1.762 million; this is again the highest since last May 5.
With the larger number of continuing claims, the insured unemployment rate - that is, continuing claims as a percent of covered employment - rose to 1.3% in the February 16 week. This is still very, very low historically, but it does break a string of nine-and-a-half months at 1.2% or 1.1%, the latter being the record low in this 48-year span of data.
In their separate program, the number of federal government workers filing initial claims fell again in their latest reading, reaching 787 in the February 16 week, down from 919 the prior week. This sustains the more normal range for these claims that has re-emerged after the government shutdown had driven them markedly higher.
Insured unemployment rates in the state programs vary widely by state. These state data are not seasonally adjusted. During the week ending February 9, the lowest rates were in Florida (0.43%), North Carolina (0.50%), Georgia (0.62%), Tennessee (0.62%) and Virginia (0.64%). The highest rates were in Alaska (3.17%), New Jersey (2.73%), Montana (2.64%), Rhode Island (2.57%) and Connecticut (2.43%). Rates in other large-population states include California (2.12%), Texas (0.98%), New York (1.75%), Pennsylvania (2.35%) and Illinois (2.30%).
Data on weekly unemployment claims going back to 1967 are contained in Haver's WEEKLY database and are summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
Unemployment Insurance (SA, 000s) | 02/23/19 | 02/16/19 | 02/09/19 | Y/Y % | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 225 | 217 | 239 | 3.7 | 221 | 244 | 262 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 1,805 | 1,726 | -6.1 | 1,766 | 1,967 | 2,135 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.3 | 1.2 |
1.3 |
1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 |