WASHINGTON – Initial claims for jobless benefits, after seasonal adjustment, declined 2,000 to 236,000 instead of rising as the consensus expected in the May 6 week. Claims the previous week had gone down an unrevised 19,000. Before adjustment, claims in the current week rose 3,732.
The seasonally adjusted total for claims has been below 300,000 for 114 weeks and has been 236,000 or lower three times in the past six weeks.
The four-week moving average did increase 500, to 243,500.
The broadest measures of benefit claims continued to bounce along multi-decade lows. Continuing claims in the week ending April 29 declined 61,000 to 1.918 million, the lowest level for insured unemployment since Nov. 5, 1988. The previous week had been revised up slightly.
The four-week average for continuing claims went down 27,500 to 1.965 million, the lowest level for that average since Feb. 2, 1974.
The insured unemployment rate in the April 29 week stayed at 1.4% after adjustment, compared to its year-earlier 1.6%. Without adjustment it slipped a tenth to 1.3%.
In the latest week the seasonal factors had expected a 2.5% or 5,229 increase in unadjusted initial claims and instead got a 1.8% or 3,732 rise. Expectations for the latest week had centered on a level of 244,000.
The Labor Department said there were no special factors in this week's claims and only Louisiana had to be estimated.
The unemployment rate among the insured labor force is well below that reported monthly by the Labor Department because claims are approved for the most part only for job losers, not the job leavers and labor force reentrants included in the monthly report.
