US Initial Jobless Claims Fell Last Week, State Data Suggest
Applications for US unemployment benefits fell last week, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of unadjusted state-level filings released during the federal government shutdown.
Initial claims decreased to about 218,000 in the week ended Oct. 25 from a revised 231,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department data suggest.
The Labor Department hasn’t issued its weekly report since Sept. 25 because of the government shutdown, but it did make downloadable data available for most states. Bloomberg News adjusted those raw numbers using pre-released weekly seasonal factors from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When data from all states are included, this approach closely matches the official seasonally adjusted figures. However, the latest weekly data was unavailable for Massachusetts, Arizona, the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands. For those locations, Bloomberg News substituted the average of the prior four weeks.
Continuing claims, a proxy for the number of people receiving benefits, rose to 1.95 million in the week ended Oct. 18 from 1.94 million, Bloomberg News calculated.
Applications for unemployment benefits among US federal workers declined but remained extremely elevated. There were 8,865 initial claims filed nationwide in the Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees program for the week ended Oct. 25, according to data posted on the Labor Department’s website. Data from the same four locations were missing.
Continuing claims among federal workers climbed to 20,594 in the week ended Oct. 18, the most since the end of the last government shutdown.
Source : Bloomberg.com
