Jobless Claims
Released On 10/24/2013 8:30:00 AM For wk10/19, 2013
Prior Prior Revised Consensus Consensus Range Actual
New Claims - Level 358 K 362 K 335 K 319 K to 350 K 350 K
4-week Moving Average - Level 336.50 K 337.50 K 348.25 K
New Claims - Change -15 K -11 K -12 K
Highlights
The easing of special factors is helping to bring down initial jobless claims which however remain high, at 350,000 in the October 19 week. Claims hit peaks of 362,000 and 373,000 in the two prior weeks which were inflated by the government shutdown and backlog counting problems in California.
The 4-week average is at 348,250 which is a big 40,000 or so above the comparison with mid September which was before the shutdown and the counting problem.
Continuing claims are showing less volatility, down 35,000 in the latest data which are for the October 12 week. The 4-week average is up 6,000 to 2.888 million which is slightly above the month-ago trend. The unemployment rate for insured workers is unchanged at 2.2 percent.
It's hard to get a definite handle right now on jobless claims where the underlying trend is being distorted by two large but fading factors.
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