The weekly jobless claims data from the labor department is a bit suspect this week. A U.S. Department of Labor official said today that two states made changes to their computer systems that resulted in some claims not being processed in time. The Labor Day holiday may have also skewed the report. This week’s numbers are likely to be revised upwards to fit with recent weekly initial claims that are around 330k.
Initial jobless claims for the week ending September 7 were a seasonally adjusted 292k. This is a sharp decrease from the previous week’s revised reading of 323k, and is the lowest that initial claims have been since April of 2006. Not seasonally adjusted, initial jobless claims for the week were 228k.
The insured unemployment rate, which does not change frequently, decreased to a seasonally adjusted 2.2% from 2.3% the week prior. The last time this figure was so low was in May 2008.
The number of unemployment insurance recipients, or continuing claims decreased to a seasonally adjusted 2.871 million. This is well below the previous week’s revised level of 2.944 million, and is the lowest continuing claims have been since March 2008.
