Seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims totaled 226,000 for the week ending June 13, a decline of 4,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The result came in just above the 225,000 figure that analysts polled by FactSet had anticipated, the Associated Press noted.
The prior week's figure was revised up by 1,000, from 229,000 to 230,000. At 223,250, the four-week moving average climbed by 4,000 — a measure that helps iron out the swings seen in week-to-week data.
For the week ending June 6, continuing claims — which track people still drawing benefits beyond their first week and serve as a rough gauge of overall hiring — advanced 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 1.81 million.
Recent weeks have pushed claims toward the higher end of the 190,000-230,000 band seen this year, Reuters reported. Part of that drift may reflect the early-summer period, when certain states permit school support staff — those in non-teaching roles — to apply for benefits during the lengthy academic break, a pattern that government seasonal-adjustment models can struggle to account for.
Among states, the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 6 were in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, California, Texas, and Puerto Rico. Pennsylvania attributed the rise to layoffs in transportation and warehousing, administrative and support services, accommodation and food services, and health care and social assistance. Minnesota cited layoffs in educational services.
How long jobless workers are staying out of work is also creeping up: the typical unemployed person spent 11.6 weeks without a job in May, a level not seen since November 2021 and up from 11.0 weeks the prior month.
May's payroll count came in at 172,000, and over the three-month stretch since late February hiring has run at an average pace of 188,000 positions a month, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, 4.3% has been the unemployment rate for each of the past three months.
At a press conference Wednesday, Chair Kevin Warsh said policymakers on the rate-setting committee "thought that the labor markets were stable" and characterized the jobs data as "moving in a good direction." Heading into the claims release, the Fed had just wrapped up its latest policy meeting, leaving its benchmark rate unchanged at 3.50%-3.75%.
The claims data also covered the survey period used to compile the nonfarm payrolls component of June's employment report.