WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 3,000 to 244,000 in the August 5 week, compared with expectations for a 240,000 level. There was a small upward revision to the claims level in the previous week.
The data from the Labor Department showed that the four-week moving average for initial claims, a better measure of the underlying trend of the data, fell by 1,000 to 241,000 in the August 5 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 2,500 as the 234,000 level in the July 15 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase of 5.1%, or 10,107 in unadjusted claims in the week. Instead, unadjusted claims rose by 12,957 to 211,733. The current week's level was still well below the 231,542 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims fell by 16,000 to 1.951 million in the July 29 week, while the four-week moving average for continuing claims rose by only 500 to 1.965 million.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.4% in the July 29 week for the 17th straight week. The current week's rate is down from 1.6% in the same week a year earlier.
