US unemployment claims fell last week by 5.6%

WASHINGTON (ICIS)--The number of US workers filing for federal unemployment compensation fell last week by 5.6%, the Department of Labor (DOL) said on Thursday, and the number of those seeking help was down by 18% from the same week in 2009.

In its weekly report, the department said that initial figures for unemployment insurance claims were at a seasonally adjusted 451,000 for the week ended 4 September, a decrease from the earlier week’s revised number of 478,000.

In the same week of 2009, the seasonally adjusted data show there were 556,000 laid-off workers seeking economic assistance.

The four-week moving average of workers seeking unemployment compensation was at 477,750 as of 4 September, the department said, down by 9,250 or 1.9% from the prior week’s four-week average of 487,000.

Analysts typically give more credence to the four-week moving average because it provides a more accurate sense of recent jobless trends.

Comparing the four-week average of last week to the same period a year ago, the data show that the number of jobless claims had fallen by 15%.

The decline in weekly jobless claims comes after the Labor Department last week reported an overall increase in the rate of unemployed Americas in August, rising to 9.6% from the 9.5% rate that held steady for June and July.

Recession-related US unemployment peaked at 10.1% in October 2009, and then fell to 9.7% in the first quarter this year.

With the US economy struggling to continue a modest recovery, and with less than eight weeks remaining before the 2 November national elections, analysts were paying close attention to the weekly jobless claims.