Weekly Jobless Claims Back Over a Million, Increase of 135,000

In the week ending August 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,106,000, an increase of 135,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 8,000 from 963,000 to 971,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,175,750, a decrease of 79,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 2,000 from 1,252,750 to 1,254,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 10.2 percent for the week ending August 8, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 8 was 14,844,000, a decrease of 636,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 6,000 from 15,486,000 to 15,480,000. The 4-week moving average was 15,841,250, a decrease of 326,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 1,500 from 16,169,500 to 16,168,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 891,510 in the week ending August 15, an increase of 52,776 (or 6.3 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 56,304 (or -6.7 percent) from the previous week. There were 171,386 initial claims in the comparable week in2019. In addition, for the week ending August 15, 51 states reported 542,797 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 9.8 percent during the week ending August 8, a decrease of 0.6 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 14,265,344, a decrease of 935,998 (or -6.2 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 325,080 (or -2.1 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 1.1 percent and the volume was 1,619,391.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 1 was 28,059,349, a decrease of 197,601 from the previous week. There were 1,704,382 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

During the week ending August 1, Extended Benefits were available in the following 52 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,177 in the week ending August 8, an increase of 59 from the prior week.

There were 1,031 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 129 from the preceding week. There were 14,614 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending August 1, a decrease of 447 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 13,912, a decrease of 313 from the prior week.

During the week ending Aug 1, 49 states reported 11,224,774 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 48 states reported 1,289,125 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 1 were in Nevada (24.2), Puerto Rico (21.7), Hawaii (19.9), California (17.0), Louisiana (15.9), New York (15.3), Connecticut (14.0), the Virgin Islands (13.8), Georgia (13.0), and Massachusetts (12.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 8 were in Nevada (+4,028), Puerto Rico (+3,601), Kansas (+2,248), Hawaii (+247), and South Dakota (+198), while the largest decreases were in New York (-21,366), California (-19,534), Florida (-16,702), Georgia (-11,596), and Virginia (-10,653).