October 29, 2020
The seasonally adjusted initial claims, advance estimate, decreased by 40,000 to 751,000 for the week ending October 24 from the prior week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labour (DOL). The prior week’s level was revised from 787,000 to 791,000 up by 4,000. In comparison to the previous week’s average, the 4-week moving average was 787,750, a decrease of 24,500. Moreover, the preceding week’s average was revised up by 1,000 from 811,250 to 812,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 5.3% for the week ending October 17, a 0.5 percentage point decrease from the prior week’s revised rate. Moreover, DOL stated that, “advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 17 was 7,756,000, a decrease of 709,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 92,000 from 8,373,000 to 8,465,000.” Relative to last week’s revised average, the 4-week moving average decreased by 1,055,750 to 9,053,250. Notably, there was an upward revision in the preceding week’s average by 23,250 from 10,085,750 to 10,109,000.
UNADJUSTED DATA
Based on the unadjusted advance estimate, there were 732,223 actual initial claims under state programs in the week ending October 24, a decline of 28,354 (or -3.7%) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 11,998 (or 1.6%) from the previous week. Furthermore, for the week ending October 24, 51 states observed 359,667 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
During the week ending October 17, the advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 5.1%, a 0.4 percentage point decline relative to the previous week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs fell by 662,405 (or -8.2%) to 7,422,454 from a week earlier. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 46,992 (or 0.6%) from the previous week.
A total of 22,654,453 persons claimed benefits in all programs for the week ended October 10, a decrease of 415,727 compared to the prior week.
Extended Benefits, during the week ending October 10, were accessible in the following 44 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
For the week ending the 17th of October, 1,736 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, an increase of 217 relative to the previous week, whereas, 849 newly discharged veterans (-49) claimed for benefits.
However, for the week ending the 10th of October, 11,751 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, a decline of 179 relative to the previous week, whereas 13,075 newly discharged veterans (-746) claimed for benefits.
DOL noted that, “during the week ending October 10, 51 states reported 10,324,779 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 50 states reported 3,683,496 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.”
In the week ending October 10, Hawaii observed the highest insured unemployment rates of 12.6% followed by California (10.5), Nevada (10.0), Georgia (8.3), District of Columbia (7.9), Louisiana (7.8), Puerto Rico (7.4), Massachusetts (7.1), New Mexico (7.1), and Illinois (6.8).
The state that experienced the highest increases in initial claims for the week ending October 17 were Massachusetts (+5,442), Kansas (+3,010), Virginia (+2,255), Texas (+616), and Minnesota (+493), while the largest decreases were in California (-16,207), New York (-11,495), Georgia (-9,274), Florida (-7,834), and Michigan (-7,774).
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