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Initial Unemployment Claims Sink Further

The ""Department of Labor"":http://www.dol.gov/laborday/index.htm reported an estimated 323,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending August 31, a drop of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 332,000.

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The four-week moving average of first-time filings--a metric used to smoothe volatile weekly estimates--was 328,500, a decrease of 3,000.

The advance number for continuing jobless benefits (reported on a one-week lag) fell 43,000 to 2,951,000. The four-week moving average for that figure was 2,979,500, down 18,000 week-over-week.

Meanwhile, for the week ending August 17, the Labor Department reported a decline in the number of people claiming benefits in all programs to 4,395,712. There were 5,470,041 people claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week last year. No states were triggered ""on"" the Extended Benefits program for that week.

Also for the week ending August 17: States reported 1,494,742 persons claiming Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits, a decrease of 16,877 from the prior week. There were 2,263,614 persons claiming EUC in the comparable week last year; benefits this year have been directly threatened by the federal budget sequester.

The Labor Department's state data (also reported on a one-week lag) shows the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 24 were in New York (+3,568), Georgia (+903), Connecticut (+604), Michigan (+546), and Nevada (+388). New York was the only state to issue commentary on its rise in unemployment claims, citing layoffs in the transportation, educational services, and health care and social assistance industries.

On the other hand, the largest decreases for the week ending August 17 were in California (-2,544), Missouri (-1,713), Kansas (-915), Texas (-754), and New Jersey (-658). California pointed to a decline in layoffs in the service industry, while Missouri attributed its decline to a drop in layoffs in the manufacturing and construction industries.

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