February 04, 2021
The seasonally adjusted initial claims, advance estimate, decreased by 33,000 to 779,000, for the week ending January 30, from the prior week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labour (DOL). The prior week’s level was revised from 847,000 to 812,000 down by 35,000. In comparison to the previous week’s average, the 4-week moving average was 848,250, a decline of 1,250. Moreover, the preceding week’s average was revised down by 18,500 from 868,000 to 849,500.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 3.2% for the week ending January 23, a decline of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate. Moreover, DOL stated that, “advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 23 was 4,592,000, a decrease of 193,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 14,000 from 4,771,000 to 4,785,000.” Relative to last week’s revised average, the 4-week moving average decreased by 120,000 to 4,881,750. The prior week’s average was revised up by 3,750 from m 4,998,000 to 5,001,750.
UNADJUSTED DATA
Based on the unadjusted advance estimate, there were 816,247 actual initial claims under state programs in the week ending January 30, a decline of 23,525 (or -2.8%) from the previous week. The seasonal factors anticipated a rise of 9,880 (or 1.2%) from the previous week. Furthermore, for the week ending January 30, 48 states observed 348,912 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
During the week ending January 23, the advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell 0.1 percentage point to 3.6% relative to the previous week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs fell by 127,726 (or -2.4%) to 5,094,605 from a week earlier. The seasonal factors had anticipated an increase of 64,804 (or 1.2%) from the previous week.
A total of 17,835,525 persons claimed benefits in all programs for the week ended January 16, a decline of 486,405 compared to the prior week.
Extended Benefits, during the week ending January 16, were accessible in the following 20 states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, the Virgin Islands, and Washington.
For the week ending the 23rd of January, 1,914 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, a decline of 261 relative to the previous week, whereas 1,168 newly discharged veterans (-261) claimed for benefits.
However, for the week ending the 16th of January, 19,242 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, a rise of 1,176 relative to the previous week, whereas 8,613 newly discharged veterans (-930) claimed for benefits.
DOL noted that, “during the week ending January 16, 50 states reported 7,217,713 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 50 states reported 3,603,098 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.”
In the week ending January 16, Alaska observed the highest insured unemployment rates of 6.4% followed by Pennsylvania (6.4), Nevada (6.1), Illinois (5.7), Kansas (5.7), Connecticut (5.4), New Mexico (5.4), Rhode Island (5.2), Massachusetts (5.0), and New York (4.9).
The states that experienced the highest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 23 were in Florida (+23,592), Ohio (+7,002), New York (+4,065), Maryland (+2,450), and Arizona (+1,028), while the largest decreases were in California (-59,016), Kansas (-8,495), Georgia (-7,896), Pennsylvania (-6,341), and Tennessee (-6,016).
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