By Kevin Kastner

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment
benefits fell by 25,000 to 370,000 in the December 1 week, a third
straight decline after spiking in the November 10 week, the Labor
Department reported Thursday.

A Labor Department analyst said that Oklahoma was estimated due to
computer problems, but otherwise there was nothing usual in the date.

The median estimate of economists surveyed by MNI was for initial
claims to come in at 375,000 which would have been an 18,000 decline
from the initially reported 393,000 level. That week’s claims were
revised up slightly to 395,000.

Seasonal adjustment factors expected unadjusted claims to jump by
48.3% in the December 1 week, which usually produces the largest
single-week increase of the year. Instead, unadjusted claims rose 38.9%,
or 139,678, to 498,619. That level is still below the 528,793 level
reported in the comparable week a year ago.

The state data released for the November 24 week indicated
unadjusted initial claims increased in 17 states and declined in 36
states, with no states unchanged. The District of Columbia, Puerto Rico,
and Virgin Islands are included in this data.

The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week moving average was
408,000 in the December 1 week, an increase of 2,250 from the previous
week and the highest average since the October 1, 2011 week. The moving
average should decline next week as the November 10 level of 451,000
rolls out of the calculation.

The level of continuing claims came in at 3.205 million after
seasonal adjustment in the November 24 week, a decline of 100,000 from
the previous week.

The level of unadjusted continuing claims jumped by 465,529 to
3,301,200 in the week, but remains below the 3,696,154 level in the
comparable week a year ago.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 2.5% from
2.6% in the previous week, and remains well below the seasonally
adjusted 2.9% rate in the comparable 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.

The Labor Department said that the level of unadjusted Emergency
Unemployment Compensation benefits claims fell by 110,446 in the
November 17 week, bringing that category total to 2,008,608.

Extended benefits claims fell by 206 to 37,096 in the November 17
week.

The extended benefits program pays claims after a person has
exhausted regular unemployment benefits and the four tiers of Emergency
Unemployment Claims. The program provides benefits for an additional 13
weeks but some states can volunteer to pay extended benefits for an
additional 7 weeks for a total of 20 weeks.

The extended benefits program can be triggered if a state has an
unemployment rate above 8% and is more than 110% of that states
unemployment rate in one of the three previous years. New York is
currently the only state still on the program.

The Labor Department reported that a total of 4,959,240 persons
claimed unemployment benefits in the November 17 week, a decline of
224,722 from the previous week and still well below the 6,575,150
persons in the comparable week a year ago. These data are not seasonally
adjusted, and include regular state claims, federal employee claims, new
veterans claims, the EUC and extended benefits programs, state
additional benefits, and STC/Workshare claims.

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: MAUDS$,MT$$$$,M$U$$$,MAUDR$]