Jobless claims down 11,000
Today鈥檚 jobless claims report showed a decline to both initial claims and continued claims with a subtle flattening continuing to shape up for both series while total continued claims including federal extended benefits appear to also be flattening.
Seasonally adjusted 鈥渋nitial鈥� unemployment claims declined by 11,000 to 448,000 claims from last week鈥檚 revised 459,000 claims while 鈥渃ontinued鈥� claims declined by 18,000 resulting in an 鈥渋nsured鈥� unemployment rate of 3.6%.
Since the middle of 2008 though, two federal government sponsored 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefit programs (the 鈥渆xtended benefits鈥� and 鈥淓UC 2008鈥� from recent legislation) have been picking up claimants that have fallen off of the traditional unemployment benefits rolls.
Currently there are some 5.4 million people receiving federal 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefits.
Taken together with the latest 4.98 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are well over 10 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.
Historically, unemployment claims both 鈥渋nitial鈥� and 鈥渃ontinued鈥� (ongoing claims) are a good leading indicator of the unemployment rate and inevitably the overall state of the economy.
Adjusting for the general increase in population tames the continued claims spike down a bit.
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