Unemployment Claims Increase Reflects Recent Volatility
Initial claims for unemployment insurance jumped by 51,000 last week to 419,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday, continuing a recent trend of volatility that has seen claims take two steps forward, one step backward.
For the week ending July 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims rose to 419,000, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week’s level, which revised up by 8,000 from 360,000 to 368,000. This marked the first rise above 400,000 claims in three weeks. The four-week moving average rose to 385,250, an increase of 750 from the previous week’s revised average.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 2.4 percent for the week ending July 10. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 10 fell to 3,236,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week’s revised level to the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 21, 2020, when it was 3,094,000. The previous week’s level was revised up
24,000 from 3,241,000 to 3,265,000. The four-week moving average fell to 3,338,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week’s revised average to the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020, when it was 2,071,750.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 406,053 in the week ending July 17, an increase of 14,479 (3.7 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 36,391 (-9.3 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 1,373,239 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending July 17, 47 states reported 110,257 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate rose to 2.4 percent during the week ending July 10, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,249,777, an increase of 106,073 (3.4 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 134,890 (4.3 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 11.2 percent and the volume was
16,396,735.
The report said the total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending July 3 fell to 12,573,833, a decrease of 1,262,815 from the previous week. Labor reported 32,935,470 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.
