• U.S. Initial Unemployment Claims Up 17k

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In the week ending December 15, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 361,000, an increase of 17,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 344,000 and 2.4% below the same week a year ago. The 4-week moving average was 367,750, a decrease of 13,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 381,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending December 8, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December1 were in Alaska (6.2), New Jersey (3.9), Pennsylvania (3.9), Puerto Rico (3.7), Montana (3.4), California (3.3), Nevada (3.3), Oregon (3.3), Connecticut (3.2), and Wisconsin (3.1). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending December 8 were in California (+5,952), Florida (+749), Ohio (+743), Rhode Island (+197), and Colorado (+161), while the largest decreases were in New York (-11,295), Pennsylvania (-11,247), North Carolina (-8,564), Wisconsin (-5,726) and Georgia (-5,317). Click on chart to enlarge Note: “Insured unemployment rate” refers to individuals who are unemployed and receiving UC benefits. Source: USDOL-BLS

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