U.S. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Drop By 5,000 To Two-Week Low

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The number of individuals filing initial jobless claims declined during the last week, but the labor market continued to stay weak, a report said.

The decrease in the first-time jobless claims reflects some improvement in the U.S. economy, which has already suffered by the subprime contagion, amid weak consumer confidence and rising gas prices.

U.S. weekly initial jobless claims decreased by 5,000 to 381,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending June 14, according to the Labor Department on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the four-week average, which is a less volatile measure, of initial jobless claims rose by 3,250 to 375,250, from 372,000 in the second week of June.

The four-week average was between 300,000 and 325,000 for much of 2007, while it was below 350,000 for most of the first quarter this year.

The number of continuing jobless claims fell by 76,000 to 3.06 million for the week ending June 7, which is the lowest since April, but more than 2.52 million reported a year earlier.

The four-week average of continuing unemployment claims moved down by 2,000 to settle at 3.1 million, which is the lowest since May 24.

Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected claims to drop to 375,000, from a previously reported 384,000 a week earlier, according to the median of 41 projections with estimating ranging from 370,000 to 395,000.

The Labor Department report Thursday showed the unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance, which tends to track the U.S. jobless rate, increased to 2.3 percent from 2.4 percent.

Last month, the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent, up from 5 percent in April, led by declining jobs in manufacturing, construction, retail trade and business services.

The report also said there were 44 states and territories registering an increase in initial jobless claims, while 9 reported a decrease in the jobless claims for the June 7 week.

California led with the biggest rise by 10,778 in new jobless claims during the June 7th week, followed by Florida shedding 6,164 jobs.

Wisconsin topped the list of states with the largest decrease, due to fewer layoffs in the construction, trade, service and manufacturing industries, down by 1,382.

The U.S. economy has lost jobs every month since the begining of this year and it shed as much as 20,000 in the month of April and up to 49,000 jobs in May.

Last year, the economy created as many as 91,000 new jobs each month on average.