The Labor Department said Thursday a heavily estimated first-time jobless claims report for the week ending May 27 showed 248,000, an unexpected gain of 13,000. The shortened week due to a holiday caused 9 states, including California, to estimate data.
That raises the risk of a large revision next week and minimizes the impact of a 13,000 gain in initial claims. Continuing claims, in lagging data for the May 20 week, fell 9,000 to 1.915 million with the unemployment rate for insured workers remaining at just 1.4%.
All the readings in this report over the last year, in confirmation that demand for labor is very strong, have moved to lows not seen since the early 1970s.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 13 were in Alaska (3.1), Puerto Rico (2.6), New Jersey (2.2), California (2.1), Connecticut (2.0), Illinois (1.8), Pennsylvania (1.8), Massachusetts (1.7), Nevada (1.7), and Rhode Island (1.7).
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 20 were in Michigan (+1,634), Missouri (+874), Texas (+652), Vermont (+475), and Mississippi (+459), while the largest decreases were in New York (-1,033), Connecticut (-779), Oregon (-496), Georgia (-440), and New Jersey (-400).
