ETA News Release: Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report (10/11/2012)

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Department of Labor, Employment and Training Admin

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending October 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 339,000, a decrease of 30,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 369,000. The 4-week moving average was 364,000, a decrease of 11,500 from the previous week's revised average of 375,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending September 29, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending September 29 was 3,273,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,288,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,279,250, a decrease of 7,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,287,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

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The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending September 29 were in New York (+2,764), California (+2,069), North Carolina (+1,217), Pennsylvania (+989), and Arkansas (+538), while the largest decreases were in Mississippi (-3,393), Michigan (-2,639), Florida (-1,972), Ohio (-1,723), and Oregon (-1,135).

Read more: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/eta20122035.htm

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Good morning, Freepers and DUers alike. It is time once again for the weekly unemployment insurance initial claims report, brought to you as a nonpartisan public service. I ask you to put aside your differences long enough to read this post. Following that, you can engage in your usual donnybrook.

Wow. Huge decrease: 30,000. Start the "the numbers are cooked" whine in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ....

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Jobless Claims Data Skewed Downward

Jobless Claims Data Skewed Downward

By Dunstan Prial, Peter Barnes

Published October 11, 2012
FOXBusiness

A sharp drop in the number of weekly jobless claims filed last week was caused by the failure of one large state to report all of its claims, a Labor Department spokesman confirmed to FOX Business.

Initial jobless claims, which are a measure of the number of people recently laid off, fell by 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the lowest level in more than four years.

But the Labor Department spokesman said the numbers were skewed by one large state that underreported its data. The spokesman declined to identify the state, but economists believe California is the only state large enough to have such a significant impact on the overall numbers.

According to the spokesman, the reason that state’s claims numbers fell short was because the state left out a pile of unprocessed claims related to seasonal factors around the beginning of the fourth quarter, which began Oct. 1.