This Week's Numbers Game

U.S. Department Of Labor:

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending November 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 390,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 400,000 (midnight rider note: the previous week was 397,000 until they adjusted it after no one was paying attention). The 4-week moving average was 400,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 405,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent for the week ending October 29, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 29 was 3,615,000, a decrease of 92,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,707,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,690,250, a decrease of 19,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,709,750.


UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 398,753 in the week ending November 5, an increase of 29,106 from the previous week. There were 452,657 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent during the week ending October 29, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,166,982, a decrease of 32,545 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.0 percent and the volume was 3,783,097.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending October 22 was 6,835,604, an increase of 51,990 from the previous week.