Initial jobless claims drops, but too early to predict a trend

February 11, 2010

The number of workers filing initial jobless claims in the U.S. decreased by 43,000 in the week of February 6. The 440,000 jobless claims for the week is a decrease from the previous week's revised figure of 483,000 as released by the U.S. Department of Labor. It is too early to say if this is the beginning of a trend toward better employment numbers.

The prior week's unexpectedly high reading was blamed in part on a backlog of claims that piled up over the holiday season and a Labor Department official said the report showed this backlog was largely "washed out."

The number of initial jobless claims filed an year ago was 617,000.

With the exception of November 2009, payrolls have declined in every month since the recession began in December 2007.

Number of people filing for unemployment benefits

The weekly report showed the number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell to 4.54 million in the week ended January 30, the lowest in 13 months. That figure does not factor in those who have dropped off the rolls because they have exhausted benefits, not because they have found new jobs.

The figure for the same time last year was 4.76 million.

U.S. economic output jumped by an annualized 5.7 percent pace in the fourth quarter, but this has not translated into employment gains.

Largest increase and largest decrease in initial jobless claims

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 30 were in Pennsylvania (+10,495), Illinois (+3,062), North Carolina (+2,868), Georgia (+2,803), and Missouri (+2,677), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-1,819), Kansas (-1,600), Connecticut (-1,282), Virginia (-1,227), and Puerto Rico (-911).