WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 1,000 to 236,000 in the August 26 week, as expected, following an upward revision to the claims level in the previous week, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
The four-week moving average for initial claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of the data, fell by 1,250 to 236,750 in the August 26 week, a fifth straight decline and the lowest level since 235,500 in the May 20 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 fall by 2,000 as the 244,000 level in the August 5 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a very modest decrease of 0.2%, or 469, in unadjusted claims in the week. Instead, unadjusted claims rose by 890 to 196,020. The current week's level was well below the 215,688 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims fell by 12,000 to 1.942 million in the August 19 week, while the four-week moving average for continuing claims fell by 6,250 to 1.952 million.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.4% in the August 19 week for the 20th straight week. The current week's rate is down from 1.6% 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.
