by Calculated Risk on 11/01/2012 08:30:00 AM
Thursday, November 01, 2012
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline to 363,000
The DOL reports:
In the week ending October 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 363,000, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 372,000. The 4-week moving average was 367,250, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 368,750.The previous week was revised up from 369,000.
The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.
Click on graph for larger image.
The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 367,250. This is about 4,000 above the cycle low for the 4-week average of 363,000 in March.
Weekly claims were slihgtly lower than the consensus forecast of 365,000.
And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:
Mostly moving sideways this year, but near the cycle bottom.
SPECIAL NOTE: Due to Hurricane Sandy, we will probably see an increase in initial unemployment claims over the next few weeks.