Jobless Claims Dropped 14,000 Last Week

Initial jobless claims in the week ending June 30 fell to 374,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 388,000, and the lowest level in a month-and-a-half, the Labor Department announced Thursday. The four-week moving average, a less volatile number that flattens out week-to-week fluctuations in the data, was 385,750, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week. First-time claims for unemployment benefits had reached at least 380,000 for the past five weeks. Analysts consider a reading of 375,000 to be a benchmark that signals strong enough hiring to lower the unemployment rate. The number of Americans filing for continuing unemployment claims during the week ending June 23 was 3,306,000, an increase of 4,000 from the preceding week. The four-week moving average was 3,304,250, a decrease of 3,000 from the prior week. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 16 was 5,869,607, a decrease of 20,439 from the previous week. States reported 2,628,712 persons claiming emergency unemployment benefits for the week ending June 16, a decrease of 16,805 from the prior week. There were 3,256,523 claimants in the comparable week last year. The largest increases in initial jobless claims for the week ending June 23 were in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey. The largest decreases were in Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. California, Illinois, Georgia, Missouri, and New York.