U.S. jobless claims drop 14,000 but still over 400,000

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims drop 14,000 but still over 400,000

2011-07-08 06:48:37 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 418,000 in the week ending July 2, which represents a decrease of 14,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) said on Thursday.

The latest DOL report shows that the 4-week moving average was 424,750, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 427,750. In addition, the department also revealed that those unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending June 25 was 2.9 percent, a decrease of 0.1 percent compared to the previous week's 3.0 percent rate.

Furthermore, according to the DOL document, there was a decrease of 43,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,681,000 during the week ending June 25, while the 4-week moving average was 3,705,250, a decrease of 3,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,709,000.

Meanwhile, the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 416,798 in the week ending July 2, an increase of 10,165 from the previous week. There were 470,366 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 18 was 7,459,561, a decrease of 61,327 from the previous week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending June 18 were in Puerto Rico (4.7), Alaska (4.2), Pennsylvania (4.0), Oregon (3.9), California (3.7), Nevada (3.6), Arizona (3.4), Connecticut (3.4), Illinois (3.4), and New Jersey (3.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 25 were in New Jersey (+6,827), California (+5,375), Massachusetts (+3,816), New York (+2,591), and Connecticut (+2,097) while the largest decreases were in Pennsylvania (-4,974), Puerto Rico (-1,332), North Carolina (-1,316), Georgia (-975) and the Virgin Islands (-927).

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