Jobless Claims Fall More than Expected for Week Ending May 11

Initial jobless claims came in at 212,000 for the week ending May 11, a sharper than expected decline of 16,000 beating the consensus forecast. The 4-week moving average ticked up to 225,000, an increase of 4,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 220,250.

	Prior	Consensus Forecast	Forecast Range	Actual
Initial Jobless Claims	228K	219K	210K — 221K	212K

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No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending April 27.

In lagging data, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was unchanged at a very low 1.2% for the week ending May 4.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 4 came in at 1,660,000, a decline of 28,000. The 4-week moving average rose to 1,668,250, an increase of just 1,500.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 27 were in Alaska (2.5), New Jersey (2.2), California (2.0), Connecticut (1.9), Pennsylvania (1.7), Puerto Rico (1.7), Illinois (1.6), Massachusetts (1.6), Rhode Island (1.6), New York (1.5), and Washington (1.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 4 were in New York (+9,365), Illinois (+2,010), Missouri (+791), Kansas (+754), and Iowa (+676), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-6,239), Connecticut (-3,208), California (-1,920), Arizona (-668), and Wisconsin (-661).