First time jobless claims stay high at 414,000
Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – First time claims for jobless benefits remained stubbornly above the key 400,000 mark during the week ending June 11. The tally was 414,000 initial claims, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Initial jobless claims have been stuck above 400,000 weekly since April.
Although that was down by 16,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 430,000, it is still too high to signal that a long-awaited jobs recovery is near.
Economists say that it takes the creation of around 200,000 jobs per month to provide jobs for people entering the work force for the first time.
To put that situation into perspective, the economy would need to create about 20 million jobs right now to provide jobs for those who lost their jobs since the recession began, along with the people who tried to enter the workforce during that time and could not find their first job. Analysts say that could take 10 to 15 years to accomplish.
The less volatile four-week moving average was unchanged from the previous week at 424,750 initial jobless claims.
In addition, the percentage of jobless Americans covered by the nation’s unemployment compensation insurance program was unchanged at 2.9 percent for the week ending June 4, the most recent week for which such data is available.
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 4 were in:
- Wisconsin (+1,528)
- Tennessee (+1,055)
- Illinois (+755)
- New Mexico (+659) and
- Indiana (+539)
The number of people claiming benefits in all jobless programs for May 28, the latest week for which such data is available, was 7,401,228, which was down by 209,116 from the previous week.
During the week ending May 28, extended jobless benefits were available in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.
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