WASHINGTON (MNI) - Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 to 245,000 in the June 3 holiday week, slightly ahead of the 240,000 level analysts expected and following a larger-than-normal upward revision to 255,000 in the previous week, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
The level of claims has ticked up in recent weeks after hitting decades-low levels in early May, but still suggests labor markets remain tight ahead of next week's FOMC meeting.
The upward revision to claims in the May 27 week likely reflects the large number of states estimating their data in the holiday-shortened reporting period. For the June 3 week's data, only Louisiana's claims were estimated.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of the data, rose by 2,250 to 242,000 in the June 3 week.
If the number of headline claims does not change next week and there are no revisions to data from the past four weeks, the four-week average will rise by an additional 3,000 as the 233,000 level in the May 13 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 4.7%, or 10,955, in unadjusted claims in the holiday-shortened week. Instead, unadjusted claims fell by 19,398 to 212,189 and was still well below the 232,300 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims fell by 2,000 to 1.917 million in the May 27 week. The four-week moving average for continuing claims fell by 750 to 1.915 million in the May 27 week, the lowest level since 1.881 million in the January 12, 1974 week.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.4% in the May 27 week for the eighth straight week. The current rate is down from 1.5% in the same week a year earlier.
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.
