U.S. Weekly Claims Edged Up but Rate Hit a New Record Low
Summary
- Initial claims edged up in the latest week but remain near historically low levels.
- Continued weeks claims are the lowest since December 1969.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance were 202,000 in the week ended March 26 (-72.3% y/y), an increase of 14,000 from the 188,000 level of the week before. That prior week was revised from 187,000 reported before. The Action Economics Forecast Survey expected 200,000 claims for the latest week. The 4-week moving average of initial claims edged down to 208,500, from 212,000 in the prior week.
In the week ended March 19, continued weeks claimed for unemployment insurance were 1.307million, down from 1,342 million in the previous week. These figures are below the 1.715 million of March 7, 2020, immediately before the pandemic and are also the lowest since December 27, 1969. The insured unemployment rate reached a new record low of 0.9%, down from 1.0% reached on the March 5 week. The data on the insured unemployment rate began in 1971.
In the week ended March 12, the number of continued weeks claimed in all unemployment insurance programs decreased 82,000 to 1.776 million. This total includes federal employees, newly discharged veterans, extended benefits and other specialized programs. Continued claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation are no longer reported as both programs have expired.
The state insured rates of unemployment in regular programs vary widely. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 12 were in California (2.45%), Alaska (2.27%), New Jersey (2.34%), Rhode Island (2.21%), Massachusetts (2.08%), Minnesota (2.11%), New York (2.02%), Illinois (1.90%), Connecticut (1.75%), Montana (1.73%), and Pennsylvania (1.70%). The lowest rates were in Virginia (0.19%), Alabama (0.21%), North Carolina (0.32%), Tennessee (0.40%), Florida (0.40%) and Texas (0.81%).
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 and is 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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