January 28, 2021

The seasonally adjusted initial claims, advance estimate, decreased by 67,000 to 847,000, for the week ending January 23, from the prior week’s revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labour (DOL). The prior week’s level was revised from 900,000 to 914,000 up by 14,000. In comparison to the previous week’s average, the 4-week moving average was 868,000, a rise of 16,250. Moreover, the preceding week’s average was revised up 3,750 from 848,000 to 851,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate stood at 3.4% for the week ending January 16, a decline of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate.  Moreover, DOL stated that, “the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 16 was 4,771,000, a decrease of 203,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 80,000 from 5,054,000 to 4,974,000.” Relative to last week’s revised average, the 4-week moving average decreased by 106,750 to 4,998,000. The prior week’s average was revised down by 21,500 from 5,126,250 to 5,104,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

Based on the unadjusted advance estimate, there were 873,966 actual initial claims under state programs in the week ending January 23, a decline of 101,498 (or -10.4%) from the previous week. The seasonal factors anticipated a decrease of 33,673 (or -3.5%) from the previous week. Furthermore, for the week ending January 23, 48 states observed 426,856 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

During the week ending January 16, the advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell 0.2 percentage point to 3.7% relative to the previous week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs fell by 274,055 (or -5.0%) to 5,208,719 from a week earlier. The seasonal factors had anticipated a decrease of 71,477 (or -1.3%) from the previous week.

A total of 18,282,090 persons claimed benefits in all programs for the week ended January 9, a rise of 2,293,495 compared to the prior week.

Extended Benefits, during the week ending January 9, were accessible in the following 19 states: Alaska, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, the Virgin Islands, and Washington.

For the week ending the 16^th of January, 3,139 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, a rise of 1,131 relative to the previous week, whereas 1,249 newly discharged veterans (+189) claimed for benefits.

However, for the week ending the 9^th of January, 18,066 former Federal civilian employees claimed for UI benefits, a decrease of 558 relative to the previous week, whereas 9,543 newly discharged veterans (-158) claimed for benefits.

DOL noted that, “during the week ending January 9, 50 states reported 7,334,193 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 50 states reported 3,863,548 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.”

In the week ending January 9, Kansas observed the highest insured unemployment rates of 7.7% followed by Pennsylvania (7.0), the Virgin Islands (6.9), Alaska (6.4), Nevada (6.1), Michigan (5.6), Puerto Rico (5.6), Illinois (5.5), New Mexico (5.5), and Connecticut (5.4).

The state that experienced the highest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 16 were in Florida (+8,643), Maryland (+7,935), Kansas (+6,746), Ohio (+5,665), and Rhode Island (+2,998), while the largest decreases were in California (-65,383), New York (-10,936), Texas (-9,170), Pennsylvania (-8,503), and Washington (-7,877).