Jobless claims continue their decrease

Data for seasonally adjusted unemployment insurance claims show that in the week ending June 20, the advance figure for adjusted initial claims had lowered over the course of a week. Claim figures showed 1,480,000, a decrease of 60,000 from the previous week’s revised level, according to a Thursday morning news release from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The previous week’s level was revised up by 32,000 from 1,508,000 to 1,540,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,620,750, a decrease of 160,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 8,000 from 1,773,500 to 1,781,500, according to the release.

For the week ending June 13, the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 13.4 percent, a decrease of 0.5 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate, the release said. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.2 from 14.1 to 13.9 percent.

Unadjusted data shows that the advance number of actual initial claims under state programs (unadjusted), totaled 1,457,373 in the week ending June 20, a decrease of -0.4 percent from the previous week, according to the release. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 53,913 (or 3.7 percent) from the previous week. In 2019, there were 225,819 initial claims in the comparable week.

In the week ending June 20, 46 states reported 728,120 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. 

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 12.3 percent during the week ending June 13, a decrease of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 17,921,282, a decrease of -2.7 percent) from the preceding week. Compared to a year ago, the rate was 1.1 percent and the volume was 1,558,646, the release said.

More data collected from the U.S. Department of Labor shows that the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 6 was 30,553,817, an increase of 1,294,309 from the previous week. There were 1,546,208 persons claiming benefits in all programs compared to the same week in 2019.

During the week ending June 6, Extended Benefits were available in 44 states, including Missouri.

According to the release, the week ending Jun 6 showed that 46 states reported 11,046,401 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 38 states reported 851,983 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.