From this past week’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report released today:
In the week ending Dec. 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 452,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 480,000. The 4-week moving average was 465,250, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 468,000.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.9 percent for the week ending Dec. 12, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.9 percent.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 12 was 5,076,000, a decrease of 127,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 5,203,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,233,000, a decrease of 90,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,323,000.
The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.673 million.
UNADJUSTED DATA
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 561,902 in the week ending Dec. 19, an increase of 6,492 from the previous week. There were 719,615 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.
Clearly, job losses are declining. Next year, the focus has to be hiring.