Initial Unemployment Claims Fall

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 297,870 in the week ending April 19, a decrease of 20,923 (or -6.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 326,264 initial claims in the comparable week in 2013. – DoL

Compared to the comparable week last year claims declined 8.6%, consistent with recent trends…. More to follow.

Initial Claims – Click to enlarge

The seasonally adjusted headline number was 329,000. Keep in mind that that is a made up number.  Conomists consensus was for 312,000. Not a bad guess. Bloomberg blamed the seasonal adjustment factor for the Easter holiday for the miss. The actual unadjusted data was absolutely consistent with the trend.

According to the DoL - The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 42,668 (or -13.4 percent) from the previous week, versus the actual decline of 20,923. The 10 year average for the comparable week was a drop of 29,306.