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Labor Outlook A Bit Brighter With Unemployment Claims Dip

04/29/2010
The Department of Labor says 11,000 less claims for unemployment were made in the week ending April 24, with a total of 448,000. The previous week reported 459,000, and the four-week moving average was 462,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent for the week ending April 17, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 3.6 percent.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 423,286 in the week ending April 24, a decrease of 11,171 from the previous week. There were 583,457 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,219 in the week ending April 17, a decrease of 224 from the prior week. There were 2,441 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 23 from the preceding week.

There were 20,197 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending April 10, an increase of 113 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 37,051, an increase of 455 from the prior week.

States reported 5,200,473 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 10, a decrease of 146,641 from the prior week. There were 2,286,186 claimants in the comparable week in 2009. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 10 were in Alaska (6.6 percent), Puerto Rico (6.4), Oregon (5.9), Wisconsin (5.6), Pennsylvania (5.4), Nevada (5.2), California (5.0), Idaho (5.0), Montana (5.0), Michigan (4.9), and North Carolina (4.9).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 17 were in Puerto Rico (+3,549), Iowa (+1,606), Georgia (+1,412), Connecticut (+768), and Florida (+422), while the largest decreases were in New York (-21,010), California (-15,380), Pennsylvania (-4,512), Oregon (-4,317), and New Jersey (-3,777).

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