U.S. Jobless Claims Fall to 189,000 as Continuing Claims Rise
New U.S. jobless claims fell by 6,000 to 189,000 in the week ending October 31. Continuing claims rose in the preceding week.
New U.S. unemployment claims fell to 189,000 in the week ending October 31, according to a Department of Labor report released Thursday, November 5. The seasonally adjusted total was down 6,000 from the previous week’s revised count. The report also showed an increase in the number of people continuing to claim benefits in an earlier week.
The two figures cover different groups and different periods. Initial claims count new filings for unemployment insurance. Continuing claims reflect people who are still claiming benefits after an initial filing, and those numbers arrive with an additional week of lag. Looking at both helps separate the latest movement in applications from what is happening to people already receiving benefits.
New claims and the four-week average fell
The prior week’s new-claims figure was initially reported at 194,000 and revised to 195,000. Thursday’s reported decrease of 6,000 is measured from that revised figure. The latest count is an advance estimate, so it can also be revised when the next report comes out.
The four-week average for new claims fell to 194,750. It was down 2,250 from the revised previous average of 197,000. The average puts the latest week alongside the three preceding weeks, which makes it less sensitive to swings in any one weekly report.
The Labor Department adjusts the headline counts for seasonal patterns. That lets readers compare weeks when recurring changes in employment and claim filing would otherwise make the raw totals difficult to compare. The report also publishes figures without those adjustments.
Continuing claims moved in the other direction
For the week ending October 24, the department reported 1,718,000 people claiming benefits on a seasonally adjusted basis, an increase of 23,000 from the revised prior week. The four-week average for continuing claims increased by 1,000 to 1,709,500. The insured unemployment rate held at 1.1%.
Because the weeks differ, the increase in continuing claims and the decline in new applications can both be true. Neither number identifies whether a person stopped claiming benefits because they found work, exhausted their eligibility or left the program for another reason. The claims report primarily describes activity in the insurance system.
How claims differ from the monthly jobs report
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a separate Employment Situation report. It draws on two surveys: one of employers, which produces the payroll jobs figures, and one of households, which produces the overall unemployment rate. The insured unemployment rate in Thursday’s report uses a different measure tied to unemployment insurance coverage.
Readers following the labor market can use the weekly report to watch the flow of applications and the monthly report to look at employment across the wider economy. Within this week’s claims release, the clearest comparison is between the latest counts and the revised figures for their own prior weeks.
For the weekly series, pay attention to the date next to each number. The October 31 figure is the latest for initial claims. Using the October 24 continuing count as if it covered the same week would make the comparison look more direct than it is.
Photo: Shawn T. Moore / U.S. Department of Labor via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Cropped.
