U.S. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Rose By 18,000 At 366,000 Last Week

July 17, 2008 12:17 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The number of individuals filing initial jobless claims for insurance increased during the last week as the labor market remained weak, a report said.

U.S. weekly initial jobless claims for insurance increased by 18,000 to 366,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis in the week ending July 12, according to the Labor Department on Thursday.

While, the four-week average, which is a less volatile measure, of initial jobless claims declined by 4,500 to 376,500 in the second week of July and compared to 381,000 in the prior week.

The four-week average was between 300,000 and 325,000 for much of 2007, which is a sign of healthy job growth, while it was below 350,000 for most of the first quarter this year.

Any figure above 350,000 indicates that the labor market is weak; the weekly jobless claims has remained above that level since the month of April this year.

The number of continuing jobless claims dropped by 81,000 to 3.12 million for the week ending July 4.

The four-week average of continuing unemployment claims also gained by 16,500 to 3.14 million, which is the highest level seen in over four years.

The market analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had projected claims to rise to 380,000, according to the median of 41 projections with estimating ranging from 350,000 to 414,000.

In June, the unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent, up from 5 percent in May and April, led by the declining jobs in manufacturing, construction, goods-producing industries and business services.

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.

The report also said there were 28 states and territories registering an increase in initial jobless claims, while 25 reported a decrease in the jobless claims for the July 4 week. These data are reported with a one-week delay.

Over the period of six months, payrolls have now declined for a total loss of 438,000 workers and the payroll in the month of April and May was revised to 52,000 more jobs.

The U.S. economy has lost jobs every month since the beginning of this year and it shed as much as 62,000 in the month of June and up to 49,000 jobs in May. Last year, the economy created as much as 91,000 new jobs each month on average.

Overall, the slight increase 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.