Weekly Jobless Claims Fall by 11K Before Presidential Election

Weekly Jobless Claims Graphic. Number of Americans applying for first-time jobless benefits.

The Labor Department reported Thursday weekly jobless claims fell by 11,000 during the the week ending November 5, right before the election. The four-week moving average was 259,750, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 257,750 to 258,000.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending October 22 were in Alaska (3.1), Puerto Rico (2.6), the Virgin Islands (2.5), New Jersey (2.2), California (2.0), Connecticut (2.0), Pennsylvania (1.8), Nevada (1.7), West Virginia (1.7), Illinois (1.6), Massachusetts (1.6), and Wyoming (1.6).

A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors impacting this week’s initial claims and no state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending October 22 . While this marks 88 consecutive weeks of initial claims below 300,000, the longest streak since 1970, it is also a fact long-term unemployment and falling participation has simply shrunk the eligible pool of applicants.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending October 29 were in Missouri (+4,154), Kentucky (+3,552), California (+1,987), Wisconsin (+1,432), and Minnesota (+710), while the largest decreases were in North Carolina (-2,384), Michigan (- 1,008), South Carolina (-880), New York (-858), and Georgia (-773).