U.S. jobless claims drop but still over 400,000

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims drop but still over 400,000

2011-04-21 20:45:36 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 403,000 in the week ending April 16, which represents a decrease of 13,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

According to the latest DOL report, the 4-week moving average was 399,000, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week's revised average of 396,750.

Meanwhile, the department revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending April 9 remained unchanged at a 2.9 percent rate, compared to the previous week.

Furthermore, the DOL document showed a decrease of 7,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,695,000 during the week ending April 9, while the 4-week moving average was 3,716,750, a decrease of 17,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,734,250.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 380,668 in the week ending April 16, a decreas of 67,357 from the previous week. There were 436,814 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 2 was 8,299,810, compared to last week's report of 8,517,545 for the week ending March 26.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 2 were in Alaska (6.0 percent), Puerto Rico (5.0), Idaho (4.4), Oregon (4.4), Pennsylvania (4.3), Wisconsin (4.3), New Jersey (4.2), Rhode Island (4.2), California (4.1), Connecticut (4.1), and Montana (4.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 9 were in California (+25,646), North Carolina (+6,041), Kentucky (+5,202), Texas (+5,108), and Florida (+4,299), while the largest decreases were in Minnesota (-403), Iowa (-389), Maine (-55), and Wyoming (-9).

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