Initial Claims at 14-Month Low

Initial claims for mortgage insurance fell by another 34,000 last week, their lowest level since March 2020, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The report said for the week ending May 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims fell to 444,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised level to the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000. The previous week’s level revised up by 5,000 from 473,000 to 478,000. The four-week moving average fell to 504,750, a decrease of 30,500 from the previous week’s revised average to the lowest level since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate rose slightly to 2.7 percent for the week ending May 8, 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 May 8 rose to 3,751,000, an increase of 111,000 from the previous week’s level, which revised down by 15,000 from 3,655,000 to 3,640,000. The four-week moving average rose to was 3,681,000, an increase of 24,750 from the previous week’s revised average.

The report said the advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 454,634 in the week ending May 15, a decrease of 37,395 (or -7.6 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 3,414 (or -0.7 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 2,163,595 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending May 15, 53 states reported 95,086 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

Labor said the advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 2.6 percent during the week ending May 8, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,684,082, a decrease of 10,323 (or -0.3 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 121,208 (or -3.3 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 15.8 percent and the volume was 23,037,998.

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending May 1 was 15,975,448, a decrease of 886,568 from the previous week. Labor reported 20,974,625 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.