WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 8,000 to 214,000 in the December 15 survey week, well below expectations for a 225,000 level, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
The level of claims was down 11,000 from the 225,000 level in the November 17 employment survey week, a positive for the employment data. The level of claims was unrevised from the 206,000 level previously reported for the December 8 week.
A better measure for the underlying trend of the data is the four-week moving average for initial claims. The average fell by 2,750 to 222,000 in the December 15 week, up by 3,250 from the 218,750 level in the November 17 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 would fall by 5,250 as the 235,000 level in the November 24 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected a decrease of 7.3%, or 18,991 in unadjusted claims. However, claims actually posted a decrease of 3.7%, or 9,766, to 251,773. The current week's level was below the 287,396 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims rose by 27,000 to 1.688 million in the December 8 week. Before seasonal adjustment, continuing claims rose by 55,343 to 1.705 million, remaining well below the 1.968 million level seen in the comparable week last year.
The four-week average for continuing claims, which tends to be a more reliable measure as continuing claims consistently fluctuate week-to-week, rose by 6,750 to 1.673 million.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.2% in the December 8 week, down from 1.4% in the same week a year earlier, reinforcing that the level of insured unemployment is extremely low.
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.
