U.S. weekly jobless claims drop to lowest in 5 years

USPA News - Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States dropped to 335,000 in the week ending January 12, the lowest level in five years in what seems a good start of the year, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said Thursday. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for unemployment insurance showed a 37,000 decrease compared to the previous week`s 372,000. The 4-week moving average was 359,250, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week`s revised average of 366,000. According to the DOL figures, the jobless claims were the lowest since January 2008. Although the report signals encouraging improvements, the country must keep a steady development as the positive start in the year could gradually fade.

The DOL report also showed that the number of unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending January 5 increased by 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent, compared to the previous week. There was also an increase of 87,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,214,000 during the week ending January 5. The 4-week moving average was 3,195,750, a decrease of 6,000 from the preceding week`s revised average of 3,201,750. In the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, the Labor Department report showed a slight increase of 2,360, totaling 555,708 in the week ending January 12. There were 525,422 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December 29 were in Alaska (6.9), Pennsylvania (4.3), New Jersey (4.2), Wisconsin (4.2), Montana (4.1), Puerto Rico (4.1), Connecticut (4.0), Idaho (3.9), Rhode Island (3.8), Illinois (3.7), and Massachusetts (3.7). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 5 were in New York (+37,189), Georgia (+15,354), North Carolina (+13,606), California (+8,691), and Texas (+8,669), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-12,536), New Jersey (-5,530), Oregon (-5,471), Ohio (-4,915), and Kentucky (4,257).