U.S. Unemployment Insurance Claims Hold Fairly Steady
Summary
- Initial claims equal the 222,000 forecast amount
- Continuing claims ease modestly; prior week revised down somewhat
- Insured unemployment rate maintains longstanding 1.2%
Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 222,000 seasonally adjusted in the week ended April 19, up modestly from 216,000 the week before. That previous week was just marginally revised from 215,000. The latest week was exactly equal to the forecast survey amount of 222,000, as in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.
The total number of unemployment insurance beneficiaries -- also known as “continuing claims”—in the week ended April 12 was 1.841 million, down from 1.878 million in the prior week; that was revised from 1.885 million. The four-week moving average was 1,864,000, modestly lower than the 1,865,500 in the prior week.
The insured unemployment rate, that is, the number of beneficiaries as a percentage of covered employment, remained at 1.2%. This rate has been stable at that amount since the week of January 6, 2024, when it dipped to 1.1%.
Economic conditions vary widely across states and territories. In the week ended April 5, the highest rates were in New Jersey (2.49%), Rhode Island (2.34%), California (2.29%), Washington (2.22%) and Minnesota (2.17%). The lowest rates were in Florida (0.34%), Alabama (0.40%), Virginia (0.47%), South Dakota (0.51%) and North Carolina and Nebraska (both 0.52%). Rates in other noteworthy states include New York (1.75%), Pennsylvania (1.57%), Illinois (1.96%) and Texas (1.11%). 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. 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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