Just when we thought we might be catching a break, this unforgiving recession reminds us she is sticking around a while. Jobless claims had only just dipped below the psychologically important 450K mark, and offered hope of moving toward 400K. However, optimists were slapped in the face today by reality, as new benefits filers were reported higher last week. Or was it just the census crew coming in for their checks?

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Jobless Claims Show Anchored Unemployment

If ever we saw an indicator of anchored unemployment, we did today. Weekly Jobless Claims for the week ended October 9 increased by 13,000, to 462K. The prior week’s result was also revised upwards, to 449K, from 445K. Economists were stymied, since they were looking for a reading of 443K. Heck, even we were duped into thinking things might finally be flattening out at least. Nope! Nada! We’re still stuck in the mud, or rather, anchored.

This latest result broke a streak of six straight declines in the four-week moving average for claims, which increased by 2,250 in the latest period, to 459K. Still, we can take some comfort in the fact that the latest period’s claims count was not far above the four-week average. Perhaps this will prove just a short-term dip, and it may be due to census workers, recently let go, finding their way to another type of government check.

The insured unemployment rate dipped a tenth of a point to 3.5% for the October 2 period, but that was only after the prior week was revised back up to 3.6%. In other words, if you’re celebrating this, I’m sorry to tell you that it’s the same news we partied about last week. Still, the insured unemployed count dipped by 112K in the October 2 period, which is good news, at least for those folks. Well, if they got a job it is anyway; if they died, that’s another story…

FYI:

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Sept. 25 were in Puerto Rico (6.3%), Alaska (4.5), California (4.0), Nevada (4.0), Oregon (4.0), Pennsylvania (4.0), New Jersey (3.9), Connecticut (3.6), Illinois (3.6), and South Carolina (3.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Oct. 2 were in Pennsylvania (+2,869), New Jersey (+2,132), Georgia (+1,361), Indiana (+833), and Washington (+677), while the largest decreases were in California (-6,131), Florida (-5,357), Iowa (-817), Illinois (-746), and Puerto Rico (-578).

Extended benefits were available in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin during the week ending Sept. 25.

Labels: Economic Reports, Labor Market

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