U.S. jobless claims drop 16,000 to 385,000

U.S. jobless claims drop 16,000 to 385,000

2011-03-17 20:30:26 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 385,000 in the week ending March 12, a decrease of 16,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

The DOL report also showed that the 4-week moving average was 386,250, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 393,250.

In addition, the department revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending March 5 remained the same as the previous week at 3.0 percent.

Furthermore, the DOL document showed a decrease of 80,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,706,000 during the week ending March 5, while the 4-week moving average was 3,779,000, a decrease of 58,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,837,000.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, totaled 372,370 in the week ending March 12, a decrease of 37,313 from the previous week. There were 434,424 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending February 26 rose to 8,953,610, compared to last week's report of 8,772,818 for the week ending February 19.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending February 26 were in Alaska (6.7 percent), Rhode Island (5.5), Montana (5.4), Pennsylvania (5.3), Idaho (5.1), Oregon (5.1), Puerto Rico (5.0), Wisconsin (4.9), New Jersey (4.8), and Connecticut (4.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 5 were in New York (+17,926), California (+13,388), Illinois (+4,514), Pennsylvania (+3,907), and Texas (+2,828), while the largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-2,482), Oregon (-1,680), Rhode Island (-1,120), Connecticut (-838), and Florida (-687).

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