INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS 448k, CONTINUING CLAIMS 3.282mln
New claims for unemployment insurance totaled 448K, well above the 393K expected. This is the highest level of initial claims since April 2003 but was impacted by special factors tied to the Federal Emergency Compensation program recently enacted by Congress. The initial claims for the week ended July 19 was revised down slightly to 404K from the previously reported 406K.
Continuing claims for unemployment compensation totaled 3.282 million for the week ended July 19, up 185,000 from the previous week, the largest increase in decade. This is the highest level of insured unemployment since December 2003.
The much higher number for initial claims is partly reflecting filings from unemployed persons who are checking their eligibility for Federal emergency unemployment benefits, recently approved by Congress, and it is determined that they are eligible for regular unemployment benefits. Many of these people have been notified by the state that they are potentially eligible for the emergency benefits program due to an exhaustion of their benefits during the past year but discover that they are eligible for the regular claims program again due to intervening periods of work. This raises the normal claims for unemployment benefits. The Department of Labor reported that previous research indicates as many as 50% of eligible unemployed do not file for unemployment benefits even under normal circumstances and this group may not have realized that intervening work made them eligible for the program again.
No data on the number of people who are eligible for the emergency federal benefits has been released yet by the Department of Labor.
More data is now available for the initial claims filed in the week ended July 19. Florida and Wisconsin reported the largest gains with increases of over 3K as layoffs increased in construction, services and trade jobs. New York reported 20K fewer initial claims during the week due to reduced layoffs in service, public administration and transportation industries.