Extended unemployment claims drop by 52,000
Initial jobless claims went unchanged at 351,000 claims, but 鈥渃ontinued鈥� claims for jobless benefits declined by 52,000.
This chart shows the number of initial and continued jobless claims since 2009. Claims are trending well below the 400,00 mark 鈥� a positive sign for the economy.
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Today鈥檚 jobless claims showed that initial unemployment claims went flat while continued unemployment claims declined as seasonally adjusted initial claims continued to trend well below the closely watched 400K level.
Seasonally adjusted 鈥渋nitial鈥� went unchanged at 351,000 claims from last week鈥檚 revised 351,000 claims while seasonally adjusted 鈥渃ontinued鈥� claims declined by 52,000 resulting in an 鈥渋nsured鈥� unemployment rate of 2.7%.
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 3.40 million people receiving federal 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefits.
Taken together with the latest 3.98 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 7.39 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.