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Jobless claims surge to 2-month high
By Blake Ellis, contributing writerJanuary 21, 2010: 10:04 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance surged to a 2-month high last week, the government said Thursday.
There were 482,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Jan. 16, up 36,000 from a revised 446,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.
A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to fall to 440,000.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 448,250, up 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 441,250.
"We did see an increase in initial claims and that does counter the recent trend of consistent improvement," said Robert Dye, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services. "But it's not surprising given the adverse weather conditions."
The cold weather in December and the first half of January caused industries such as construction, agriculture and retail to suffer, Dye said.
"Typically, economic series are seasonally adjusted," he said. "But when you have unusual weather like this, the adjustments sometimes don't go far enough to capture it."
Continuing claims: The government said 4,599,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Jan. 9, the most recent data available. That's down 18,000 from the preceding week's revised 4,617,000 claims
By Blake Ellis, contributing writerJanuary 21, 2010: 10:04 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance surged to a 2-month high last week, the government said Thursday.
There were 482,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Jan. 16, up 36,000 from a revised 446,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report.
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A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected new claims to fall to 440,000.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 448,250, up 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 441,250.
"We did see an increase in initial claims and that does counter the recent trend of consistent improvement," said Robert Dye, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services. "But it's not surprising given the adverse weather conditions."
The cold weather in December and the first half of January caused industries such as construction, agriculture and retail to suffer, Dye said.
"Typically, economic series are seasonally adjusted," he said. "But when you have unusual weather like this, the adjustments sometimes don't go far enough to capture it."
Continuing claims: The government said 4,599,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended Jan. 9, the most recent data available. That's down 18,000 from the preceding week's revised 4,617,000 claims
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