Initial Claims Fall by Nearly 200,000

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell sharply last week to its lowest level since March 2020, the Labor Department reported yesterday.

The report said for the week ending April 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims dropped to 576,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week’s level revised up by 25,000 from 744,000 to 769,000. The four-week moving average fell to 683,000, a decrease of 47,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This is also the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500.

Labor reported the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate increased to 2.7 percent for the week ending April 3, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 3 rose to 3,731,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level revised down by 7,000 from 3,734,000 to 3,727,000. The four-week moving average fell to 3,763,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the previous week’s revised average to the lowest level for this average since March 28, 2020, when it was 3,611,750.

The report said the advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 612,919 in the week ending April 10, a decrease of 152,833 (or -20.0 percent) from the previous week. Seasonal factors had expected an increase of 39,687 (or 5.2 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 4,897,867 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending April 10, 53 states reported 131,975 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.8 percent during the week ending April 3. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,936,696, a decrease of 87,991 (or -2.2 percent) from the preceding week. Seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 91,905 (or -2.3 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 8.5 percent; volume was 12,445,532.

The report said the total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending March 27 fell to 16,934,061, a decrease of 1,235,856 from the previous week. Labor reported 8,196,826 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.