WASHINGTON — Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 to 231,000 in the Dec. 29 week, above expectations for a 220,000 level, data released by the Labor Department Thursday showed.
The level of claims was revised upward to 221,000 in the Dec. 22 week from the previously reported 216,000 level. Overall, the data suggest seasonal adjustment difficulties.
A better measure for the underlying trend of the data is the four-week moving average for initial claims. The average fell by 500 to 218,750 in the Dec. 29 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 rise by 6,250 as the 206,000 level in the Dec. 8 week rolls out of the calculation.
Seasonal adjustment factors had expected an increase of 6.4%, or 18,779 in unadjusted claims. However, claims actually posted an increase of 11.1%, or 32,255, to 323,880. The current week's level was below the 351,348 level in the comparable week a year ago.
The level of continuing claims rose by 32,000 to 1.740 million in the Dec. 22 week. Before seasonal adjustment, continuing claims rose by 23,711 to 1.789 million, remaining well below the 2.066 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 26,000 to 1.704 million.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held steady at 1.2% in the Dec. 22 week, down from 1.3% 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.
