U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Rose in Latest Week
Summary
- New claims rose by 4,000 to 212,000.
- Continuing claims declined by 31,000 to 1.833 million.
- The insured unemployment rate remained at 1.2% for the 12th consecutive week.
from 208,000 in the week ending February 14, revised from 206,000. The four-week average edged up 750 to 220,250 in the February 21 week from 219,500 in the prior week, revised from 219,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for 216,000 claims to have been filed.
The total number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries—also known as “continuing claims”—declined by 31,000 to 1.833 million in the week ending February 14, from 1.864 million in the week ending February 7, revised from 1.869 million. The four-week moving average stood at 1.847 million, an increase from the previous week’s average of 1.844 million, revised from 1.845 million. The insured unemployment rate remained at 1.2% in the week of February 14, unchanged from the previous eleven weeks.
The insured unemployment rate varied greatly across individual states and territories. In the week ending February 7, the highest unemployment rates were in Rhode Island (3.05%), New Jersey (2.90%), Massachusetts (2.74%), Washington (2.52%), Minnesota (2.46%), California (2.20%), Montana (2.12%), Michigan (2.03%) and Oregon (2.02%). The lowest rates were in Florida (0.31%), Louisiana (0.38%), North Carolina (0.43%), Mississippi (0.42%), Alabama (0.44%), and Arkansas (0.46%). Rates in other notable states include Illinois (2.27%), New York (2.24%), Pennsylvania (2.01%), and Texas (1.12%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment claims are from the Department of Labor itself, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They begin in 1967 and are contained in Haver’s WEEKLY database and summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW back to December 1986.
Kathleen Stephansen, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Kathleen Stephansen is a Senior Economist for Haver Analytics and an Independent Trustee for the EQAT/VIP/1290 Trust Funds, encompassing the US mutual funds sponsored by the Equitable Life Insurance Company. She is a former Chief Economist of Huawei Technologies USA, Senior Economic Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, Chief Economist of the American International Group (AIG) and AIG Asset Management’s Senior Strategist and Global Head of Sovereign Research. Prior to joining AIG in 2010, Kathleen held various positions as Chief Economist or Head of Global Research at Aladdin Capital Holdings, Credit Suisse and Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Securities Corporation.
Kathleen serves on the boards of the Global Interdependence Center (GIC), as Vice-Chair of the GIC College of Central Bankers, is the Treasurer for Economists for Peace and Security (EPS) and is a former board member of the National Association of Business Economics (NABE). She is a member of Chatham House and the Economic Club of New York. She holds an undergraduate degree in economics from the Universite Catholique de Louvain and graduate degrees in economics from the University of New Hampshire (MA) and the London School of Economics (PhD abd).
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