Initial Jobless Claims up to 454,000, An Increase of 51,000 from Previous Week

INTIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS UP BIG … BLAME IT ON RIO, OR THE SNOW.

President Barack Obama ended his SOTU speech by saying  “… state of our union is strong.” Really! Really?

The US Dept of Labor has posted the most recent jobless rate … 454,000, up 51,000 from the previous week, up dramatically than the predictions!!! It appears that they want to blame it on the snow. Really guys? I’ll bet it was “among other things” that was the cause.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Jan. 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 454,000, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 403,000. The 4-week moving average was 428,750, an increase of 15,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 413,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.2 percent for the week ending Jan. 15, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.1 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 15 was 3,991,000, an increase of 94,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,897,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,975,500, a decrease of 39,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,015,250.