Weekly Jobless Claims Come Over the Top of Estimates

The U.S. Department of Labor released the weekly jobless claims report Wednesday as the markets will be closed Thursday for Thanksgiving. The new jobless claims came in at 313,000, well above the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 286,000. The previous reading was 292,000.

As a result the 4-week moving average came in at 294,000 an increase of 6,250 from the previous week’s revised average.

There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7% for the week ended on November 15. The reading for continuing claims on that week was 2.316 million, a fall of 17,000 from the previous revised level. Note that these continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.

Continuing claims are at their lowest level since December in 2000, when they totaled 2.263 million.

The highest continuing claims rates across the U.S., in descending order, for the week ended November 8 were from: Alaska, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Oregon.

The largest increases in initial jobless claims across the U.S., in descending order, for the week ended November 15 were: Minnesota, Montana, Wisconsin, New York, and Colorado, while the largest decreases in initial jobless claims were in: California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Massachusetts.

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