Initial Jobless Claims Data Goes Up to 312,000 from 304,000

Today, on June 5, the U.S. Department of Labor has released its weekly unemployment insurance claims data. In this way, for the last week, the figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims, amounted to 312,000, which represents an increase of 8,000 from the week before. The revised level for the previous week amounted to 304,000, from 300,000.

In a recent report on CNBC, Rick Santelli presented this data and stated that the numbers are not at all surprising. According to the Department of Labor, the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for the week ended May 25 amounted to around 2.60 million, down by 20,000, from the previous week revised level.

“This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since October 27, 2007 when it was 2,587,000,” the Department of Labor said in a statement.

Rick Santelli commented:

“We are seeing what happens. It’s kind of the North Carolina effect on the federal side. We see the unemployment rate moving down for all the wrong reasons. The jobless claims issue is eventually the benefits play into a dynamic I can’t quite handicap yet.”

At the same time, the total number of people claiming benefits for the week ending May 17, amounted to over 2.51 million, which represents a decrease of some 40,300 from the previous week. In comparison, for the same week in 2013, the number of people claiming benefits was much higher, of almost 4.64 million.

The Department of Labor also stated that the highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending May 17 were in Alaska and Puerto Rico, amounting to 4.3 and 3.0 respectively. They are trailed by California and New Jersey, each having unemployment rates of 2.9.

In addition, the highest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 24 were in New York, and Ohio, which posted increases of around 1,300 and 970 respectively. The largest decreases have been posted by Michigan and Kansas of 6,700 and 2,100 respectively.

Watch the full CNBC report below: