Jobless claims: Another 232,000 Americans filed new claims last week

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 232,000 Americans filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Thu, February 24, 2022, 8:30 AM · 3 min read

New weekly jobless claims dipped last week, returning to a downward trend following a brief spike higher.

The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial jobless claims, week ended Feb. 24: 232,000 vs. 235,000 expected, 248,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended Feb. 12: 1.476 million vs. 1.580 million expected, 1.593 million during prior week

During the prior week, jobless claims posted their first increase following three straight weeks of declines, with labor market data still coming in choppily in the wake of the jump in Omicron cases at the start of the year. Still, claims have continued to come in just marginally above their pre-pandemic levels, as jobless claims averaged around 220,000 throughout 2019. Continuing claims for regular state benefits have also now come in below 2019's levels of around 1.699 million on a weekly basis.

But the jobless claims data belies the tightness of the labor market, which has been more evident in data on job openings. Vacancies have remained near record levels, underscoring employers' widespread desire to bring on more workers to keep pace with elevated consumer demand.

{snip}

Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-feb-24-2022-labor-market-202508500.html

---

Here are this morning's banner and yesterday afternoon's placeholder article:

COMING UP Jobless claims preview: Another 235,000 individuals likely filed new claims last week
Check back at 8:30 a.m. ET for results

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-feb-24-2022-labor-market-202508500.html

Yahoo Finance
Jobless claims preview: Another 235,000 Americans likely filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Wed, February 23, 2022, 3:25 PM·2 min read

New weekly jobless claims likely dipped last week, returning to a downward trend following a brief spike higher.

The Labor Department is set to release its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here are the main metrics expected from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Stay ahead of the market
Initial jobless claims, week ended Feb. 24: 235,000 expected vs. 248,000 during prior week

Continuing claims, week ended Feb. 12: 1.580 million expected vs. 1.593 million during prior week

Stay ahead of the market
Weekly jobless claims last week posted their first increase following three straight weeks of declines, with labor market data still coming in choppily in the wake of the jump in Omicron cases at the start of the year. Still, claims have continued to come in just marginally above their pre-pandemic levels, as jobless claims averaged around 220,000 throughout 2019. Continuing claims for regular state benefits have also now come in below 2019's levels of around 1.699 million on a weekly basis.

But the jobless claims data belies the tightness of the labor market, which has been more evident in data on job openings. Vacancies have remained near record levels, underscoring employers' widespread desire to bring on more workers to keep pace with elevated consumer demand.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

The boilerplate of the report has been changed just a little. The program contact person and number have changed. The change was made seven weeks ago. The report from seven weeks ago was the first with the new name and number. The reports are shorter than before too. They used to be twelve or thirteen pages long. They are now ten pages long.

Hat tip to the new guy, Kevin Stapleton.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, February 24, 2022

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending February 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 232,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 248,000 to 249,000. The 4-week moving average was 236,250, a decrease of 7,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 243,250 to 243,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.1 percent for the week ending February 12, unchanged from the previous week's revised rate. The previous week's rate was revised down by 0.1 from 1.2 to 1.1 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending February 12 was 1,476,000, a decrease of 112,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 1970 when it was 1,456,000. The previous week's level was revised down by 5,000 from 1,593,000 to 1,588,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,576,000, a decrease of 49,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since June 30, 1973 when it was 1,570,000. The previous week's average was revised down by 1,250 from 1,626,250 to 1,625,000.

{snip}

UNADJUSTED DATA

{snip}

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending February 5 was 2,032,667, a decrease of 30,906 from the previous week. There were 19,883,148 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2021.

{snip the rest of the ten-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 22-331-NAT

Program Contacts:
Kevin Stapleton: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]