Weekly Jobless Claims Fall to Lowest Level Since 1973

Weekly jobless claims, or the number of Americans filing for first-time state unemployment insurance benefits fell by 6,000 to 247,000 the week ending April 16. That came in lower than the estimate for 263,000.

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims and no state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending April 2. The the prior week was unchanged at 253,000.

The report marks 59 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1973. It is also the lowest level for initial claims since November 24, 1973
when it was 233,000.

However, the number of long-term unemployed American workers decreases the those eligible to apply for unemployment insurance significantly.

The four-week moving average–which is widely considered to be a more stable gauge, as it irons out volatility–was 260,500, down 4,500 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 265,000.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 2 were in Alaska (4.1), New Jersey (2.9), Wyoming (2.9), West Virginia (2.7), Pennsylvania (2.6), Connecticut (2.5), Puerto Rico (2.5), California (2.4), Illinois (2.4), and Massachusetts (2.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 9 were in California (+12,563), Pennsylvania (+3,049), Texas (+2,676), Arizona (+2,496), and Florida (+1,494), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-2,609), New York (-2,217), Wisconsin (-1,469), Oregon (-1,022), and Ohio (-769)