Jobless Claims Fall More than Expected, Insured Unemployment Falls Again

Labor Market Continues to Improve Despite Strict Lockdown States

Washington, D.C. (PPD) — The U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported initial jobless claims fell more than expected by 40,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 751,000 for the week ending October 24. The previous week was revised up only slightly 4,000 from 787,000 to 791,000.

Forecasts ranged from a low of 750,000 to a high of 880,000. The consensus forecast was 758,000. The 4-week moving average was 787,750, a decrease of 24,500 from the previous week, which was also revised up only slightly by 1,000 from 811,250 to 812,250.

Lagging Jobless Claims Data

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate crated down to 5.3% for the week ending October 17, a decline of 0.5 from the previous week, which was revised up a tick 0.1 to 5.8. Post-Covid-19 shutdown, the insured unemployment rate first fell to single digits during the week ending August 15 at 9.9%.

Under the Trump Administration, this rate had fallen to an all-time low 1.1% and remained at 1.2% as recently as March 14. But that was before coronavirus (COVID-19) mitigation efforts.

The insured unemployment rate hit the first high of the current crisis at 8.2% for the week ending April 4. The all-time high prior to that was 7.0%, recorded in May of 1975. On April 11, it rose to 11.0% and 12.4% on April 25.

Worth noting, the labor market indicators are improving again despite the most strictest lockdown states — which consequently saw the highest number of infections — disproportionately hurting the labor market and overall economy.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending October 10 were in Hawaii (12.6), California (10.5), Nevada (10.0), Georgia (8.3), District of Columbia (7.9), Louisiana (7.8), Puerto Rico (7.4), Massachusetts (7.1), New Mexico (7.1), and Illinois (6.8).