U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise to 367,000

[News_Editor]

U.S. jobless claims unexpectedly rise to 367,000

2012-04-13 00:03:51 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States increased to 367,000 in the week ending April 7, the highest number since late January, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported on Thursday.

The unexpected rise in jobless claims comes after the U.S. government reported a constant drop in the numbers, reaching its lowest claims since April 2008 in recent weeks. Thursday's report also showed an increase in the 4-week moving average which was 368,500, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week's revised average of 364,250.

The number of unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending March 31, however, has remained unchanged at 2.6 percent compared to the previous week.

In addition, there was also a decrease of 98,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,251,000 during the week ending March 31, according to the latest DOL report. The 4-week moving average was 3,334,250, a decrease of 35,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,370,000.

In the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, the DOL report showed an increase of 62,530 as it totaled 381,875 in the week ending Aprril 7. There were 448,029 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 24 were in Alaska (5.8), Pennsylvania (4.3), Oregon (4.2), Montana (4.0),New Jersey (4.0), Puerto Rico (4.0), Rhode Island (4.0), California (3.9), Wisconsin (3.9), Connecticut (3.8), Idaho (3.8), and Illinois (3.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 31 were in Oregon (+2,079), Pennsylvania (+1,866), Illinois (+1,024), New Jersey (+725), and Alabama (+541), while the largest decreases were in Texas (-1,633), Florida (-1,556), New York (-1,216), Puerto Rico (-928), and Missouri (-754).

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-04-13

[rakman]

And I'll be willing to bet the participation rate (those who have job vs those who don't) is at an historic low.