Main Street

Initial Unemployment Claims Rise

Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits rose again last week, the Labor Department reported.

In the week ending Aug. 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 484,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 482,000. The 4-week moving average was 473,500, an increase of 14,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 459,250.

Calculated Risk charts the 4-week moving average of initial unemployment claims.

click here for a larger image at Calculated Risk

Weekly initial claims have not been less than 400,000 since September 2008. After dropping steadily in the last half of 2009, they stopped declining at the beginning of 2010 and are now rising again. The new jobless claims level is now nearly 50% higher than it was at the start of the Great Recession in December 2007, and near the peak of the 2001 recession.

Initial claims are those filed to begin receiving regular state-based unemployment insurance benefits, and so they largely reflect newly unemployed workers, as well as those who had previously received less than 26 weeks of benefits, taken temporary work and now are re-filing.

The AP reports:

The employment picture is looking worse as new applications for unemployment insurance rose last week to their highest level since February.

Initial claims have risen three times in the past four weeks, suggesting that companies are going back to cutting jobs. State and local government layoffs are likely also contributing to the increases.

The author is the winner of the 2010 CREDO Mobile/Netroots Nations award for Blog Activist of the Year

Tags: Jobs, unemployment