Weekly Jobless Claims Report Shows Unexpected Jump for Week Ending January 16

The weekly jobless claims report released by the Labor Department showed applications rose to 293,000 week ending January 16, up from a downwardly revised 283,000 the week prior. The number represents a six-month high (July) and indicates the labor market may be impacted by the sharp economic slowdown.

Wall Street expected the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits to fall to 278,000 from an initially reported 284,000. There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims, according to a Labor Department analyst, and no state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending January 2.

The 4-week moving average–which is widely considered to be a better gauge, as it irons-out volatility–was 285,000, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week’s downwardly revised average. Still, unemployment claims have now been below the 300,000 threshold, which is typically associated with a strong labor market, for 46 straight weeks. While that is the longest streak since the early 1970s, long-term unemployment has shrunk the pool of benefit-eligible workers.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending January 2 were in Alaska (4.6), New Jersey (3.5), Pennsylvania (3.4), Connecticut (3.2), Montana (3.2), West Virginia (3.2), Illinois (2.8), Massachusetts (2.8), Minnesota (2.8), and Rhode Island (2.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 9 were in California (+17,371), Texas (+13,399), New York (+6,819), Georgia (+5,901), and Missouri (+5,892), while the largest decreases were in Iowa (-2,737), Kentucky (- 1,790), Minnesota (-1,031), New Jersey (-698), and Michigan (-591).