Unemployment Claims Unexpectedly Jump

From The U.S. Department of Labor: UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

In the week ending Jan. 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 482,000, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 448,250, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 441,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 9, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.5 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 9 was 4,599,000, a decrease of 18,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,617,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,750,500, a decrease of 109,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,860,250.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.412 million.

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The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 650,728 in the week ending Jan. 16, a decrease of 154,194 from the previous week. There were 763,987 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009.