U.S. Jobless Claims Ease in April 6 Week
Summary
- Initial claims decrease 11,000 to 211,000.
- Continuing claims maintain fairly steady amount since May 2023.
- Insured unemployment rate holds at 1.2% since March 2023.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance decreased 11,000 in the week ended April 6 to 211,000 seasonally adjusted from 222,000 the prior week; that earlier amount was revised marginally from 221,000 reported before. The latest amount was close to the Action Economics Forecast Survey amount of 215,000. The four-week moving average of initial claims was 214,250 in the April 6 week, down modestly from 214,500 the week before. Initial claims have hovered in a relatively narrow range of 187,000 to 261,000 since the middle of 2021.
Insured unemployment, also known as continued weeks claimed, was 1.817 million in the March 30 week, also seasonally adjusted, up from 1.789 million the week before; that earlier amount was revised from 1.791 million reported a week ago. Insured unemployment has hovered in a tight range of 1.728 million to 1.829 million since May 2023.
The insured unemployment rate, that is, the amount of insured unemployment as a percent of covered employment, has been steady at 1.2% since March 11, 2023.
Unemployment insurance rates vary widely across individual states. In the week ended March 23, the five highest rates were in New Jersey (2.64%), Rhode Island (2.41%), California (2.35%), Minnesota (2.25%) and Massachusetts (2.23%). The lowest rates were in Kansas (0.36%), Florida (0.38%), Virginia (0.41%), North Carolina (0.42%) and Kentucky and Alabama (both 0.44%). Other notable areas were Illinois (1.98%), New York (1.91%), Pennsylvania (1.76%), Texas (1.05%), the District of Columbia (1.02%) and Georgia (0.60%). 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 go back to 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. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey in the AS1REPNA database.
Carol Stone, CBE
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Carol Stone, CBE came to Haver Analytics in 2003 following more than 35 years as a financial market economist at major Wall Street financial institutions, most especially Merrill Lynch and Nomura Securities. She has broad experience in analysis and forecasting of flow-of-funds accounts, the federal budget and Federal Reserve operations. At Nomura Securites, among other duties, she developed various indicator forecasting tools and edited a daily global publication produced in London and New York for readers in Tokyo. At Haver Analytics, Carol is a member of the Research Department, aiding database managers with research and documentation efforts, as well as posting commentary on select economic reports. In addition, she conducts Ways-of-the-World, a blog on economic issues for an Episcopal-Church-affiliated website, The Geranium Farm. During her career, Carol served as an officer of the Money Marketeers and the Downtown Economists Club. She has a PhD from NYU's Stern School of Business. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and has a weekend home on Long Island.
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