U.S. jobless claims increases by 26,000 to 397,000

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims increases by 26,000 to 397,000

2011-03-10 23:01:44 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 397,000 in the week ending March 5, an increase of 26,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

The increase in unemployment benefits came after last week's lowest level applications in three years. The DOL report also showed that the 4-week moving average was 392,250, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 389,250.

In addition, the report revealed that advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending February 26, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.

The DOL document showed a 97,576 increase in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 4,442,438 during the week ending February 26. In 2010, the rate was 4.3 percent and the volume was 5,538,966.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, totaled 406,096 in the week ending March 5; an increase of 52,147 from the previous week. There were 459,523 initial claims in the same period in 2010.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending February 19 was 8,772,818. This represented a decrease from the number registered for the week ending January 15 which was 9,298,859.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending February 19 were in Alaska (7.0 percent), Idaho (5.2), Montana (5.1), Puerto Rico (5.1), Oregon (5.0), Rhode Island (5.0), Pennsylvania (4.9), and Wisconsin (4.9).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February 26 were in Massachusetts (+3,804), Washington (+976), Rhode Island (+776), Connecticut (+682), and Florida (+651). The largest decreases were in California (-12,730), Illinois (-2,430), and Missouri (-2,255).

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