U.S. jobless claims rise by 27,000 to 412,000

U.S. jobless claims rise by 27,000 to 412,000

2011-04-14 20:25:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. rose to 412,000 in the week ending April 9, which represents an increase of 27,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

Weekly U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rose, reaching the highest in the past eight weeks, and even though unemployment claims normally rise at the end of each quarter, it rose more than experts had forecast.

According to the latest DOL report, the 4-week moving average was 395,750, an increase of 5,500 from the previous week's revised average of 390,250.

However, the department revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending April 2 stood at a 2.9 percent rate, a decrease of 0.1 percent compared to the previous week's 3.0 percent.

Furthermore, the DOL document showed a decrease of 58,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,680,000 during the week ending April 2, while the 4-week moving average was 3,728,750, a decrease of 20,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,749,500.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 443,503 in the week ending April 9, an increase of 89,686 from the previous week. There were 514,136 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

Meanwhile, the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending March 26 was 8,517,545, compared to last week's report of 8,524,455 for the week ending March 19.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 26 were in Alaska (6.2 percent), Pennsylvania (4.8), Puerto Rico (4.8), Oregon (4.7), Montana (4.6), Rhode Island (4.6), Wisconsin (4.6), Idaho (4.5), New Jersey (4.4), and California (4.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 2 were in Massachusetts (+2,575), Pennsylvania (+1,606), Ohio (+1,094), Illinois (1,013), and Georgia (+625), while the largest decreases were in California (-8,095), Texas (-2,913), Florida (-1,731), Missouri (-898), and Oregon (-733).

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