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The ""Department of Labor"":http://www.dol.gov/ reported Thursday that advance initial unemployment figures for the week ending July 20 totaled 343,000, an increase of 7,000 over the previous week's revised tally.
[IMAGE]The week's report does not include data used for reference in the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) monthly Employment Situation Report. That report uses data from the pay period that included the 12th day of the month.
July's employment report will be released Friday, August 2.
The four-week moving average for first-time claims was 345,250, a decline of 1,250 from the prior week. The four-[COLUMN_BREAK]
week moving average represents a less volatile figure than weekly claims numbers, which are not always reliable as a way to measure recent trends.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment--reported on a one-week lag--was 2,997,000 for the week ending July 13, a decrease of 119,000 from the preceding week. The four-week moving average for continuing claims was 3,023,250, an increase of 2,500 from week to week.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending July 6 was 4,840,609, an increase of 317,403 week-over-week. Extended benefits were not available in any state during that week.
States reported 1,612,242 people claiming Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits for the week ending July 6, a decline of 24,489 from the previous week. There were 2,556,456 people claiming EUC in the comparable week in 2012.
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 13 were in Georgia (+7,027), California (+6,799), Texas (+6,001), Alabama (+5,846), and Tennessee (+3,820). The largest decreases were in Michigan (-11,969), New York (-4,743), New Jersey (-4,477), Ohio (-2,501), and Kentucky (-2,163).
