The Labor Department said Thursday weekly jobless claims was 246,000, unchanged from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 3,000 from 249,000 to 246,000.
The 4-week moving average was 249,250, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since November 3, 1973 when it was 244,000. The previous week’s average was revised down by 750 from 253,500 to 252,750.
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 September 24.
While this marks 84 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970, longterm unemployment has simply shrunk the eligible pool of applicants.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending September 24 were in Alaska (2.7), Puerto Rico (2.6), the Virgin Islands (2.5), New Jersey (2.1), California (2.0), Connecticut (2.0), Pennsylvania (1.9), Massachusetts (1.7), West Virginia (1.7), and Illinois (1.6).
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending October 1 were in Missouri (+1,717), Pennsylvania (+1,322), Ohio (+526), Illinois (+492), and Nevada (+404), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-2,800), Georgia (-923), Texas (-371), Arkansas (-247), and Kentucky (-194).
