First Time Unemployment Claims Fall below 400,000

blr-editor | July 28, 2011 | Comments (0)

Signs of life in the job market

In good news for the Obama Administration, even as it struggles with Congress to raise the debt ceiling, the Department of Labor says the number of first-time filers for unemployment benefits fell below 400,000 for the first time since early April.

There were 398,000 initial unemployment claims filed in the week ended July 23, the Department said today, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 422,000.

The new number handily beats the 415,000 claims economists surveyed by Briefing.com had expected.

It marks the first time since April 2 that the weekly initial claims number has fallen below 400,000, a level associated with payroll growth and a lower unemployment rate.

The 4-week moving average – calculated to smooth out volatility – was 413,750, a decrease of 8,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 422,250.

Continuing claims — which include people filing for the second week of benefits or more — fell to 3,703,000 in the week ended July 16. That was slightly more than economists’ forecasts for 3,688,000.

The 4-week moving average was 3,721,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,726,250.