Jobless claims fall by 12,000
Initial jobless claims declined to 365,000 over the past week while continued jobless claims declined by 6,000.
Initial jobless claims declined to 365,000 over the past week while continued jobless claims declined by 6,000.
Today鈥檚 jobless claims report indicated that both initial and continued unemployment claims declined while seasonally adjusted initial claims remained below the closely watched 400K level.
Seasonally adjusted 鈥渋nitial鈥� declined by 12,000 claims to 365,000 claims from a revised 377,000 claims for the prior week while seasonally adjusted 鈥渃ontinued鈥� claims declined by 6,000 resulting in an 鈥渋nsured鈥� unemployment rate of 2.6%.
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 2.26 million people receiving federal 鈥渆xtended鈥� unemployment benefits.
Taken together with the latest 3.11 million people that are currently counted as receiving traditional continued unemployment benefits, there are 5.38 million people on state and federal unemployment rolls.