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First time claims fell a surprising 27,000 to 365,000 for the week ended April 28, the ""Labor Department"":http://www.dol.gov/ reported Thursday after revisions drove the prior week's report up by 4,000 to 392,000, the highest level in five months. Economists had expected initial claims would decrease to 378,000.
[IMAGE]Continuing claims â€" reported on a one week lag â€" fell to 3,276,000, a drop of 53,000 from the prior week's revised figure of 3,329,000. The prior week's figure was revised upward from an originally reported 3,315,000. The decline in continuing claims was the first in three weeks.
The drop in first time claims was the largest since the report for the first week of May 2011, suggesting seasonal factors influenced not only the recent climb in claims, but the sharp drop as well though the raw, unadjusted data showed a steep decline â€" 40,158 â€" as well.
The encouraging report on first time claims followed three straight weeks in which initial filings topped 380,000 for the first time this year since December 2011-January 2012.
This report came just an hour after outplacement firm Challenger, Grey and Christmas said layoff announcement had increased in April to 40,559 from 37,880 in March.
Thursday's initial claims data will have no impact on the Employment Situation report to be released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That report â€" including the closely watched unemployment rate â€" is based on data for the week including the 12th calendar day of the month. From mid-March to mid-April, initial claims increased 25,000, signaling a weaker employment picture.
The four week moving average for initial claims edged up to 383,500, the highest level since December. The four week average for continuing claims dropped 18,750 to 3,297,000.
Initial claims â€" despite some bumps â€" had been slowly trending downward. The recent stretch of elevated filings recalls a similar trend in early 2011 when first time claims began to increase after a slow, steady decline. Coupled with the report showing a disappointing increase in payroll jobs, the initial claims data suggest excruciatingly slow labor market recovery may have stalled.
The total number of people collecting benefits under all unemployment insurance programs, reported on a two-week lag, fell 85,523 to 6,597,492. That tally reflects changes in unemployment insurance programs, capping the number of weeks benefits would be paid, enacted when Congress approved the extension of the payroll tax suspension. According to the latest BLS report, 12.67 million people were officially counted as unemployed.
States reported 2,724,432 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending April 14, a decrease of 4,772 from the prior week, the Labor Department report said. There were 3,447,542 claimants in the comparable week in 2011.
According to the Labor Department detail, also reported on a one-week lag, the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 21 were in New York (+15,467), Massachusetts (+4,336), Connecticut (+1,776), Puerto Rico (+1,264), and Rhode Island (+1,163), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-5,748), Pennsylvania (-3,080), Wisconsin (-1,841),
Ohio (-1,798) and Alabama (-1,444).
