Weekly Jobless Claims Jump to Highest Level Since February 2015

The Labor Department said Thursday the weekly jobless claims report showed an increase of 20,000 applications to 294,000 for the week ending May 7. This is the highest level for initial claims since February 28, 2015 when it was 310,000.

While this marks 62 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, which is the longest streak since 1973, the number came in higher than the estimate for 270,000 and is the biggest jump in nine months.

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 23.

The four-week moving average–which is widely considered a better gauge, as it irons-out volatility–was 268,250, an increase of 10,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 258,000. The report is the latest string of disappointing economic news, which only until recently seems to exclude the labor market. The Labor Department reported last week that the U.S. economy added just 160,000 jobs, far lower than estimates for more than 200,000.

Labor force participation and population-to-employment ratios also decreased.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 23 were in Alaska (3.7), Wyoming (2.9), New Jersey (2.5), Puerto Rico (2.5), West Virginia (2.5), California (2.4), Connecticut (2.4), Rhode Island (2.4), Massachusetts (2.3), and Pennsylvania (2.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 30 were in Michigan (+4,003), Ohio (+3,524), New York (+2,868), Kansas (+2,532), and Missouri (+1,551), while the largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-4,887), Illinois (- 4,477), California (-3,927), Rhode Island (-1,940), and Connecticut (-1,934).