Blue Line 4 Week Average
The market was expecting 339,000 to 340,000 vs the 320,000 reported. The more important (because of the volatility in the weekly reported claims and seasonality errors in adjusting the data) 4 week moving average improved, moving from 335,500 (reported last week) to 332,000.
It should be pointed out that Econintersect watches the year-over-year change on the 4 week moving average. There is some seasonality which seems to have migrated into the seasonally adjusted data, and year-over-year comparisons removes this seasonality. The initial claims are 8.9% lower (better than the 9.1% last week) than they were in this week in 2012.
The rate of improvement this week is compariable to the rate of improvement seen in 2012 (as evidenced on the above chart) – 2013 claim levels are now within the normal range (around 350,000 weekly initial unemployment claims) of levels seen historically during times of economic expansion (see chart below).
From the Department of Labor:
In the week ending August 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 320,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 335,000. The 4-week moving average was 332,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 336,000.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending August 3, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 3 was 2,969,000, a decrease of 54,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,023,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,986,500, a decrease of 38,500 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,025,000.
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims – 4 Week Average – Seasonally Adjusted – 2011 (red line), 2012 (green line), 2013 (blue line)
