Initial jobless claims drop 11,000 to 445,000

[News_Editor]

Initial jobless claims drop 11,000 to 445,000

2010-10-07 22:30:14 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States dropped to 445,000 in the week ending October 2, a decrease of 11,000, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday.

It was a sign that the U.S. economy may have slightly improved in the last few weeks and caused U.S. stocks to rise in early trading on Thursday, but the improvement remains weak and uncertain. The 4-week moving average was 455,750, a decrease of 3,000 from last week's revised average of 458,750.

The report also showed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance had a rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending September 25, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate.

In addition, the government reported that approximately 4.46 million workers continue to receive benefits under regular state unemployment programs, a decrease of 48,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis. The 4-week moving average was 4.51 million, a decrease of 27,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 4.53 million.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending September 18 were in Puerto Rico (6.2 percent), Alaska (4.1 percent), California (4.1 percent), Oregon (4.1 percent), Nevada (4.0 percent), Pennsylvania (4.0 percent), New Jersey (3.9 percent), Connecticut (3.6 percent), Illinois (3.5 percent), and South Carolina (3.5 percent).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending September 25 were in California (+8,960), Florida (+687), Kentucky (+415), Puerto Rico (+302), and Iowa (+299), while the largest decreases were in New York (-3,703), Illinois (-2,381), Georgia (-2,314), North Carolina (-2,078), and Tennessee (-1,656).

The Labor Department is scheduled to release their monthly jobs report on Friday. Forecasters are expecting to see a slight rise in September's unemployment numbers.

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