Initial Claims Fall to 9-Month Low
In the third of four major jobs reports this week, initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to their lowest level since last April, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
For the week ending January 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims fell to 183,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 186,000. The four-week moving average fell to 191,750, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 197,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 1.1 percent for the week ending January 21. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 21 fell to 1,655,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The four-week moving average fell to 1,651,500, a decrease of 10,500 from the previous week’s revised average.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 224,356 in the week ending January 28, a decrease of 872 (-0.4 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 257,583 initial claims in the comparable week in 2022.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 1.3 percent during the week ending January 21. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 1,916,025, an increase of 52,079 (2.8 percent) from the preceding week. A year earlier the rate was 1.5 percent; volume was 2,034,539.
The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending January 14 fell to 1,890,277, a decrease of 45,459 from the previous week. The report noted 2,198,192 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2022.
The final jobs report comes out Friday morning, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases its monthly Employment Situation report on January job creation and the unemployment rate. MBA Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni will provide commentary and analysis of the Friday employment report in the Monday, Feb. 7 edition of MBA NewsLink.
