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Economy in Brief
Philadelphia Fed Manufacturing Index Jumps in January
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Factory Sector Business Conditions Index jumped to January to 26.5...
U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Ease, but Are Still High
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 900,000 in the week ended January 16...
French Surveys Improve Despite Ongoing Virus Issues
The spread of the virus in Franc is still untamed...
U.S. Home Builder Sentiment Slips in January
The Composite Housing Market Index from the NAHB-Wells Fargo declined 3.5% m/m (+10.7% y/y) in January...
Decline in Refinancing Drags Down U.S. Mortgage Applications
The MBA Mortgage Loan Applications Index fell 1.9% w/w (+56.2% y/y) in the weekend January 15...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Carol Stone, CBE December 26, 2019
Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 13,000 in the week ended December 21 to 222,000 (-0.4% y/y) from the prior week's 235,000, which was revised upward by 1,000. The December 21 actual also equaled the Action Economics Forecast Survey at 222,000 claims. The four-week moving average of initial claims rose to 228,000 from 225,750.
Continuing claims for unemployment insurance in the week ended December 14 eased 6,000 to 1.719 million (+1.2% y/y). The November 30 figure was revised up 3,000 to 1.725 million. The four-week moving average of claimants rose to 1.704 million from 1.684 million.
The insured rate of unemployment remained at 1.2% in the week of December 14. Except for two weeks in September and one week in mid-November, when the rate was at 1.1%, it has been 1.2% since May 2018.
Insured unemployment rates vary widely by state. During the week ending December 7, the lowest rates were in Nebraska (0.32%), Florida (0.39%), North Carolina (0.45%), South Dakota (0.48%) and Indiana (0.51%). The highest rates were in Montana (1.91%), Pennsylvania (2.04%), New Jersey (2.14%), West Virginia (2.17%) and Alaska (2.82%). Among the other largest states by population not mentioned above, the rate was 1.00% in Texas, 1.46% in New York and 1.87% in California. These state data are not seasonally adjusted, thus Alaska has particularly large seasonal swings in insured rates of unemployment.
Data on weekly unemployment claims going back to 1967 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 Forecast Survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
Unemployment Insurance (SA, 000s) | 12/21/19 | 12/14/19 | 12/07/19 | Y/Y % | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 222 | 235 | 252 | -0.4 | 220 | 244 | 262 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 1,719 | 1,725 | 1.2 | 1,756 | 1,961 | 2,135 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.2 | 1.2 |
1.2 |
1.2 | 1.4 | 1.6 |