U.S. Weekly Unemployment Claims Fall to 312,000

The U.S. Department of Labor Statistics recently released its unemployment insurance weekly claims report stating that weekly jobless claims in the United States dropped to 312,000 seasonally adjusted in the week ending June 14, 2014. There were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims.

The claims represent a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week’s level, which was revised up by 1,000 from 317,000 to 318,000. The 4-week moving average decreased by 3,750 to 311,750, compared to the previous week’s revised average of 315,500.

For the week ending June 7, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending June 7 was 2.56 million, representing a decrease of 54,000 from the previous week’s revised level and it is the lowest level for insured unemployment since October 13, 2007 when it was 2.54 million.

“The previous week’s level was revised up 1,000 from 2.61 million to 2.62 million. The 4-week moving average was 2.60 million, a decrease of 21,750 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since November 3, 2007 when it was 2.59 million. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 2.62 million to 2.62 million,” according to the report.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs totaled 300,193 in the week ending June 14, a decrease of 13,178 from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 7,946 from the previous week. There were 336,970 initial claims in the comparable week in 2013.

During the week ending May 31, the highest insured unemployment rates were in Alaska, followed by Puerto Rico. The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 7 were in California, followed by Florida. While the largest decreases were in New Mexico, Nebraska, Alaska, Kansas, and North Dakota.