U.S. jobless claims rise by 25,000 to 429,000

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims rise by 25,000 to 429,000

2011-04-28 20:16:54 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. rose to 429,000 in the week ending April 23, which represents an increase of 25,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

The unexpected rise in unemployment claims marked the nation's highest in the last three months, which could cause renewed concern in the labor market as it shows slow signs of recovery.

According to the latest DOL report, the 4-week moving average was 408,500, an increase of 9,250 from the previous week's revised average of 399,250.

However, the department revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending April 16 dropped by 0.1 percent at a 2.9 percent rate, compared to a revised 3.0 percent from the previous week.

Furthermore, the DOL document showed a decrease of 68,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,641,000 during the week ending April 16, while the 4-week moving average was 3,697,750, a decrease of 22,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,720,500.

The unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 385,622 in the week ending April 23, an increase of 3,560 from the previous week. There were 429,196 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending April 9 was 8,187,232, compared to last week's report of 8,299,810 for the week ending April 2.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 9 were in Alaska (5.9 percent), Puerto Rico (4.9), Oregon (4.5), Wisconsin (4.4), Pennsylvania (4.4), California (4.2), Montana (4.1), Idaho (4.1), New Jersey (4.0), Rhode Island (4.0), and Illinois (4.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 16 were in Florida (+2,753), Puerto Rico (+1,121), New Mexico (+680), New Jersey (+490), and Colorado (+481), while the largest decreases were in California (-18,017), North Carolina (-5,871), Pennsylvania (-4,925), Kentucky (-4,267), and Texas (-3,882).

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