–Unadjusted Claims at 339,838, Lowest Since September 2008

By Denny Gulino and Ian McKendry

WASHINGTON (MNI) – Initial claims for U.S. state unemployment
benefits fell by 3,000 to 450,000 in the Sept. 11 week after seasonal
adjustment, the lowest since the July 10 week, as the number of claims
fell a little more than usual for a Labor Day holiday week, the U.S.
Labor Department reported Thursday.

The raw unadjusted total of claims for the week fell 38,145 to
339,838, the lowest level since September 2008.

The Labor Department analyst said the seasonal factors expect an
administrative rebound next week in the unadjusted total, a fluctuation
that clouds the economic picture of whether the labor market is actually
improving. These latest bounces are not as confusing as in the early
July time period, when there was not only a July 4 holiday to contend
with, but a mismatch between what had been a usual pattern of auto plant
layoffs anticipated by the adjustment factors that did not happen on the
same schedule this year.

Two states were estimated, with Nebraska providing its own
approximation because of technical problems, and with headquarters
estimating the total for Virginia, which also had technical problems,
the analyst said.

For the latest week the seasonal factors expected a decline in
unadjusted claims of 36,000 or 9.6% and instead got 38,000 fewer
claims, or a drop of 10.1%, he said.

Economists surveyed by Market News International had expected
initial claims to climb to 460,000 in the current week from the
originally reported previous week’s total of 451,000, now revised
upward by 2,000.

The initial claims seasonally adjusted 4-week average fell
13,500 to 464,750, the lowest since the end of July.

In the Sept. 4 week, continuing claims fell by 84,000 to 4,485,000,
the lowest since the Aug. 21 week. Unadjusted continuing claims fell
246,280 to 3,888,599, well under the 5,300,249 of a year earlier.

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate edged back
down a tenth to 3.5% in the Sept. 4 week, down 1.1 points from 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 402,116 in the
August 28 week, bringing that category to 4,108,529. Extended
benefits claims fell by 105,737 to 853,631 not
seasonally adjusted.

** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

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