U.S. jobless claims near 400,000 after holiday season

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims near 400,000 after holiday season

2012-01-13 07:32:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States rose significantly to almost 400,000 following the holiday season, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported on Thursday.

The seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims jumped to 399,000 in the week ending January 7, an increase of about 24,000 when compared to the previous week. The sharp rise comes after the job market ended the year with positive numbers as unemployment claims reached its lowest lowest level since April 2008.

The DOL report shows the 4-week moving average was 381,750, an increase of 7,750 from the previous week's revised average of 374,000. However, the department revealed that the number of unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending December 31 remained unchanged compared to the previous week at 2.9 percent.

There was also an increase of 19,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,628,000 during the week ending January 7, according to the latest DOL report. The 4-week moving average was 3,605,000, unchanged from the preceding week's revised average.

Meanwhile, a significant increase was seen in the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, which totaled 642,381 in the week ending January 7, an increase of 102,314 from the previous week. Those were still well below the 773,499 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December 24 were in Alaska (7.4), Oregon (4.5), Idaho (4.1), Montana (4.1), Pennsylvania (4.1), Puerto Rico (4.1), Wisconsin (4.1), Nevada (3.8), New Jersey (3.8), Arkansas (3.7), Illinois (3.7), Michigan (3.7), and Rhode Island (3.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending December 31 were in Michigan (+10,364), Wisconsin (+10,203), Pennsylvania (+8,135), New Jersey (+7,989), and New York (+7,746) while the largest decreases were in California (-23,969), Illinois (-4,696), Texas (-2,385), Nevada (-1,590), and Kansas (-1,341).

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-13

[flying]

So much for this feel good report released earlier.............