WASHINGTON — Initial claims U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to 239,000 in the November 4 week, above the 230,000 level expected and driving the four-week average down to another 44-year low, 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 231,250 in the November 4 week as the 244,000 level in the October 7 week rolled out of the equation. This marks the lowest point for the average since 227,750 in the March 31, 1973 week and confirms that claims have returned to their pre-hurricane levels.
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 4,000 as the recent low 223,000 level in the October 14 week rolls out of the calculation.
The Labor Department reported that backlogged filings in Puerto Rico continued to be processed, while claims in the Virgin Islands were still "severely disrupted." Unadjusted claims in Puerto Rico totaled 8,137 in the current week after 6,124 in the previous week.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase of 7.5%, or 16,281, in unadjusted claims in the current week. Instead, unadjusted claim rose by 25,793 to 241,568. The current week's level is still well below the 258,608 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims rose by 17,000 to 1.901 million in the October 28 week, bouncing off their recent low. Unadjusted continuing claims rose by 20,258 to 1.627 million in the week, still well below the 1.763 million level a year earlier. The four-week moving average for continuing claims fell by only 750 to 1.895 million, the lowest level since 1.881 million in the January 12, 1974 week.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate rose to 1.4% in the October 28 week from 1.3% in the previous week. The current week's 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.
