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First time claims for unemployment insurance were unchanged at 351,000 for the week ended February 18, as the four-year record-low number filings one week earlier were revised upward, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. Continuing claims, reported on a one-week lag, fell 52,000 â€" the fourth drop in the six weeks this year â€" and the first time continuing claims have been below 3,400,000 since August 2008.
[IMAGE]The initial claims report covered the “reference week†used by the ""Bureau of Labor Statistics"":http://www.bls.gov/ in developing the monthly employment situation report release and the unemployment rate.
That initial claims were flat and that the previous week was revised higher suggest a yellow flag for what economists had
[COLUMN_BREAK]been anticipating would be another positive employment report, to be released March 9. The employment report reflects net activity â€" the result of hirings and firings â€" not the components. That firings slowed affects one part of the computation.
The more critical element would be the continuing claims. The decline in ongoing claims follows as individuals get jobs or no longer qualify. Total claims, including emergency and extended federal programs, fell 178,619 to 7,502,791, though extended claims â€" based on individual state unemployment rates â€" increased. Some of the overall decline came from the expiration of benefits which will be exacerbated when newly signed unemployment benefits legislation takes effect.
That said, initial claims have been on a steadily declining trend since September meaning the pace of layoffs has clearly slowed. Taken together with the continuing and extended claims, these data indicate that the labor market is steadily, if slowly, improving but that a lot of slack still exists. It remains to be seen if a similar, temporary dip from early February through the end of March 2011 â€" reversed in April â€" can be sustained.
According to the Labor Department detail, also reported on a one-week lag, the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February 11 were in Massachusetts (+853), Puerto Rico (+352), Nebraska (+345), Hawaii (+ 85), and Rhode Island (+69), while the largest decreases were in California (-8,462), Pennsylvania (-3,789), New York (-2,429), North Carolina (-2,199), and South Carolina (-1,538).
