WASHINGTON – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits fell by 25,000 to a five-week low of 234,000 in the week ended April 1, well below the 250,000 level analysts expected, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
There were no special factors reported by the Labor Department and only data from Louisiana had to be estimated for the week.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase of 0.5%, or 1,034, in unadjusted claims in the week. Instead, the unadjusted claims fell by 20,979 to 207,565, substantially below the 245,035 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The four-week moving average for initial claims fell by 4,500 to 250,000 in the April 1 week.
If the number of claims does not change next week and there are no revisions to data from the past four weeks, the four-week average will fall further to a 247,000 level as the March 11 week rolls out of the calculation.
The level of continuing claims fell by 24,000 to 2.028 million in the March 25 week, bringing its four-week moving average to 2.031 million, the lowest since June 17, 2000, when it was 2.017 million.
Before seasonal adjustment, continuing claims fell by 68,544 to 2.217 million. This level remained well below the 2.376 million level seen in the comparable week a year ago.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate stayed at 1.5%, down from 1.6% 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.
