Jobless Claims Fall by 2,000
Source: Jonathan House
A drop in the number of new unemployment claims indicated continued improvement in the labor market, though volatility around the turn of the year may have skewed the figures.
Initial claims for jobless benefits, a measure of layoffs, decreased by 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 326,000 in the week ended Jan. 11, the Labor Department said Thursday. The prior week’s figure was revised to 328,000. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had expected 331,000 new claims in the latest week.
The four-week moving average for claims, which evens out bumpy week-to-week data, fell by 13,500 to 335,000.
A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors affecting the data. But he added that jobless-claims numbers tend to be volatile around the turn of the year, when a range of holiday- and weather-related issues make it difficult to seasonally adjust the data. During the first full week of January, companies traditionally let many of their holiday employees go.
Recent data on the labor market and broader U.S. economy have been mostly positive. However, a report from the Labor Department last week showed employers added just 74,000 jobs in December, down sharply from prior months. The downbeat reading was partly attributed to bad weather and many economists said it might prove to be a fluke.
The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring labor-market conditions as it dials back a bond-buying program designed to keep interest rates low and spur the economy. In December, Fed policy makers decided to cut the bond purchases by $10 billion, to $75 billion, starting this month. They said they expect to roll back the program steadily in 2014, as long as the economic recovery continues.
Thursday’s report showed 1.35 million people received special extended benefits during the Dec. 28 week under a federal program put in place in 2008. The unadjusted figures are reported with a two-week lag.
Those benefits provided up to 47 weeks of aid for people who exhausted the roughly 26 weeks of benefits most states provide, but they expired in the final week of the year.
Lawmaker efforts to reach a bipartisan deal to extend emergency benefits for the long-term unemployed collapsed in the Senate on Tuesday.
The number of continuing unemployment benefit claims in state programs increased by 174,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3,030,000 in the week ended Jan. 4. Those figures are reported on a one-week delay.
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