Posted on 09/26/2013 6:35:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While the data may be taken with a grain of salt in light of recent technical issues, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits unexpectedly decreased in the week ended September 21st.
The report said initial jobless claims fell to 305,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 310,000.
The modest decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected jobless claims to climb to 325,000 from the 309,000 originally reported for the previous week.
The jobless claims data in recent weeks was impacted by computer system upgrades in California and Nevada, but the Labor Department said the latest report is clean.
The Labor Department also said the less volatile four-week moving average dropped to 308,000, a decrease of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 315,000.
The decrease extended a recent downward trend by the four-week moving average, which fell to its lowest level since June of 2007.
Meanwhile, continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, rose to 2.832 million in the week ended September 14th from the preceding week's revised level of 2,788,000.
The four-week moving average of continuing claims dropped to 2,842,500, a decrease of 42,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,885,250.
(Excerpt) Read more at rttnews.com ...
I wonder if TAXifornia”s total FUBAR of the unemployment system had anything to do with this drop. For over a month now they have been “unable” to make payments to unemployed workers do to a “software Upgrade issue”. At the same time it has become impossible for anyone to speak with a representative on the phone, hours cut to 8am to 12 noon. A friend just tried to file online and got the message he needed to call the UI office. This is a neat trick when if you call at 7:59:59 am you immediately get the message that due to the high number of calls being experienced you need to call back at another time. Great way for a state to save money and lower unemployment claim numbers. Dems covering for Dems.
I am furloughed from my job waiting to hear if I am coming back, and my wifes place just laid off a bunch of people last week. I call BS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.