Weekly Jobless Claims Climb Far Higher Than Expected

Jobless Claims Remain Below 300K, Prior Week Unrevised

The Labor Department’s firing rate gauge show the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose far more than expected last week. Weekly jobless claims rose to 282,000 from an unrevised 269,000 the week prior, though economists’ expected claims to hold steady at 269,000. Further, though claims remained below 300,000, which is typical a sign of a healthy labor market, there are other factors to consider.

The 4-week moving average–widely to be a better gauge as it irons-out week-to-week volatility–was 2,183,000, an increase of 16,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 2,166,500.

While the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 21 was 1,934,596, a decrease of 124,632 from the previous week, it would be irresponsible not to attribute a large part of that to long-term unemployment. There were 2,153,656 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2014, but as long-term unemployed persons increase in the labor market so does the pool eligible to file.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending November 21 were in Alaska (4.0), Puerto Rico (3.0), New Jersey (2.4), Pennsylvania (2.2), Montana (2.1), Nevada (2.1), West Virginia (2.1), Connecticut (2.0), the Virgin Islands (2.0), Massachusetts (1.9), and Wyoming (1.9). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending November 28 were in Wisconsin (+4,677), Ohio (+2,212), Kentucky (+1,953), Kansas (+638), and Arkansas (+612), while the largest decreases were in California (-20,308), Texas (-7,225), New York (-3,042), Florida (-2,898), and Oregon (-2,432).