16,000 more claims were filed last week to total 744,000 for that week alone

The US Department of Labor (DOL) is reporting a jump in unemployment claims last week, as more Americans filed claims.

Some 16,000 more claims were made to total 744,000 for the week ending April 3 over the prior week when 728,000 claims were submitted. This represented an addition of 9,000 claims over the amount filed the week before.

The four-week moving average was 723,750, an increase of 2,500. America’s DOL reports that the insured unemployment rate stood at 2.6 per cent for the week ending March 27 from the prior week’s revised rate.

The DOL reports that, “the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 27 was 3,734,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 21, 2020 when it was 3,094,000”.

Relative to last week’s revised average, the four-week moving average decreased by 105,750 to 3,862,000. The prior week’s average was revised down by 10,750 from 3,978,500 to 3,967,750.

Claims under state programmes

Based on the unadjusted advance estimate, there were 740,787 actual initial claims under state programmes in the week ending April 3, an increase of 18,172 (or 2.5 per cent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors anticipated a rise of 2,208 (or 0.3 per cent) from the previous week.

For the week ending April 3, 53 states observed 151,752 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. During the week ending March 27, the advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 2.8 per cent relative to the previous week, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point.

A total of 18,164,588 persons claimed benefits in all programmes for the week ended March 20, a decline of 50,862 compared to the prior week. Extended benefits, during the week ending March 20, were accessible in 16 states.

They are Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and the Virgin Islands. For the week ending March 27, 1,181 former Federal civilian employees claimed for unemployed insurance benefits, a rise of 21 relative to the previous week, whereas 558 newly discharged veterans (-16) claimed for benefits.

However, for the week ending March 20, 17,125 former Federal civilian employees claimed for insurance benefits, a fall of 1,342 relative to the previous week, whereas 7,985 newly discharged veterans (+10) claimed for benefits.

Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

The DOL notes that, “during the week ending March 20, 50 states reported 7,553,628 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 51 states reported 5,633,595 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits”.

In the week ending March 20, Puerto Rico observed the highest insured unemployment rate of 6.0 per cent followed by the Virgin Islands (5.6), Nevada (5.3), Alaska (5.0), Pennsylvania (5.0), Connecticut (4.6), New York (4.1), Rhode Island (3.9), Illinois (3.8), and California (3.7).

Kentucky (+16,100), Georgia (+14,493), Virginia (+10,684), California (+10,408), and New York (+8,557) had the highest increases in initial claims for the week ended March 27, while Ohio (-14,879), Massachusetts (-12,001), Indiana (-3,785), Florida (-1,633), and Michigan (-1,622).