U.S. Jobless Claims Inched Up in November 25 Week
Summary
- Initial claims in the latest week are up 7,000.
- Continuing claims reached the highest level since November 2021.
- Insured unemployment rate up slightly to 1.3%.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 218,000 seasonally adjusted in the week of November 25, from an upwardly revised level of 211,000 in the week ended November 18, initially reported as 209,000, and up 2.3% from a year ago. The Action Economics Forecast Survey had expected 218,000 in the latest week. The four-week average of initial claims is 220,000 in the November 25 week, only slightly down from 220,500 the week before.
Insured unemployment, also known as “continued weeks claimed” or “continuing claims,” was 1.927 million in the November 18 week, seasonally adjusted, up from 1.841 million in the November 11 week and up 24.0% from a year ago. The latest week represents the highest level of insured unemployment since November 2021.
The insured unemployment rate, that is, the number of continuing claims as a percent of covered employment, was 1.3% in the November 18 week, up slightly from the 1.2% in the November 11 week; this has hovered between 1.1% and 1.3% since November 19, 2022, that is, for a whole year. The all-time low for this rate is 0.9%, last seen in the first week of October 2022.
The insured unemployment rates vary widely across states. In the week ended November 11, the highest rates were in New Jersey (2.2%), California (2.1%), Alaska (2.0%), Hawaii (1.9%), Puerto Rico and Washington (both 1.7%), and Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Rhode Island (all 1.6%). The lowest rates were in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Tennessee (all 0.4%), Virginia (0.3%) and South Dakota (0.2%). Other large states were Pennsylvania and Illinois (both 1.5%) and Texas (1.0%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment claims go back to 1967 and are contained in Haver’s WEEKLY database; they are 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.
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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