Recent Updates
- US: Advance Retail Sales (Jul)
- US: CEO Confidence Survey (Q3)
- China Regional: IP Value Added, Investment in Fixed Assets (Jul)
- Azerbaijan: Retail Trade Turnover (Jul)
- Bulgaria: Foreign Trade in Goods (Jun)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Starts Drop to 1.446 Mil. in July
Toal housing starts fell 9.6% m/m (-8.1% y/y) to a lower-than-expected 1.446 million...
U.S. Gasoline Prices Decline While the Cost of Crude Oil Rises
Retail gasoline prices fell to $3.94 per gallon (+24.1% y/y) last week...
ZEW Experts Still See Depressed Conditions and Harbor Weak Expectations
the current situation in the eyes of the ZEW experts strengthened in August in the U.S. and the U.K. but...
U.S. Home Builder Index Extends Downward Trend
The NAHB-Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index declined 10.9% during August (-34.7% y/y) to 49...
U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index Plummets in August; Lowest Since May '20
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions plunged to -31.3 in August...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Carol Stone, CBE July 12, 2018
Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 214,000 during the week ended July 7, down 18,000 from the 232,000 of the prior week, which was revised up by a marginal 1,000. The Action Economics Forecast Survey looked for 225,000 claims. The four-week moving average of initial claims was 223,000, compared with 224,750 the week before.
In the week ending June 30, continuing claims for unemployment insurance totaled 1.739 million, down slightly from 1.742 million, which was revised from 1.739 million. The four-week moving average of claimants was 1.728 million, up modestly from 1.719 million in the June 23 week.
The insured rate of unemployment remained at its record low of 1.2% for a ninth consecutive week.
Insured rates of unemployment varied widely by state. During the week ended June 23, the lowest rates were in South Dakota (0.28%), Nebraska (0.46%), Indiana (0.47%), North Carolina and Utah (0.48%) and North Dakota (0.51%). The highest rates were in California (1.89%), Connecticut (1.95%), Pennsylvania (1.97%), New Jersey (2.04%) and Alaska (2.09%). These state data are not seasonally adjusted.
Data on weekly unemployment insurance 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, carried in the AS1REPNA database.
Unemployment Insurance (SA, 000s) | 07/07/18 | 06/30/18 | 06/23/18 | Y/Y % | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initial Claims | 214 | 232 | 228 | -12.3 | 245 | 262 | 278 |
Continuing Claims | -- | 1,739 | 1,742 | -10.9 | 1,961 | 2,135 | 2,266 |
Insured Unemployment Rate (%) | -- | 1.2 | 1.2 |
1.4 |
1.4 | 1.6 | 1.7 |