U.S. jobless claims drop 10,000 to 382,000

U.S. jobless claims drop 10,000 to 382,000

2011-04-07 20:16:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 382,000 in the week ending April 2, which represents a decrease of 10,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

Weekly U.S. jobless claims in the past ten weeks have dropped on seven occasions, and with last month's report of 216,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 8.8, the U.S.' job market recovery has had constant improvement.

According to the latest DOL report, the 4-week moving average was 389,500, a decrease of 5,750 from the previous week's revised average of 395,250.

In addition, the department revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending March 26 remained the same as the previous week at 3.0 percent.

Furthermore, the DOL document showed a decrease of 9,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,723,000 during the week ending March 26, while the 4-week moving average was 3,745,750, a decrease of 24,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,769,750.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 350,667 in the week ending April 2, a decrease of 6,790 from the previous week. There were 421,130 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

Meanwhile, the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 19 was 8,524,455, compared to last week's report of 8,770,443 for the week ending March 12.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 19 were in Alaska (6.5 percent), Puerto Rico (4.9), Idaho (4.7), Oregon (4.7), Rhode Island (4.7), Pennsylvania (4.6), Wisconsin (4.6), Montana (4.5), Connecticut (4.4), New Jersey (4.4), and California (4.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 26 were in Texas (+3,866), California (+3,580), Oregon (2,785), New Jersey (+926), Arkansas (+873), while the largest decreases were in North Carolina (-3,137), Massachusetts (-2,251), Florida (-1,151), Georgia (-1,141), and Oklahoma 
(-689).

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