Weekly initial jobless claims continued to decline in the week ending June 6 and continuing claims, which lags initial jobless claims by one week, declined to 20.9 million in the week ending May 30. The data indicate that workers are returning to work, albeit slowly, as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased.
The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending June 6. In the week ending June 6, the number of initial jobless claims declined by 355,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,542,000, compared to the revised previous week’s claims of 1,897,000. It marks the tenth straight week of declines in initial claims since the week ending March 28 when it hit a record peak of 6.9 million. The four-week moving average decreased to 2,002,000, from a revised average of 2,288,250 in the previous week. This week’s new claims brought the twelve-week total to 44.2 million.
Meanwhile, the number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims, declined slightly by 339,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 20,929,000 in the week ending May 30. Now it was about 4 million less than the highest point of 24.9 million in the week ending May 9, indicating more unemployed workers are being rehired as businesses reopen. The four-week moving average was 21,987,500, a decrease of 404,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate declined by 0.2 percentage point to 14.4% for the week ending May 30. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.2 percentage point from 14.8% to 14.6%.
The U.S. Department of Labor also released the advanced number of actual initial claims under state programs without seasonal adjustments. The unadjusted number of advanced initial claims totaled 1,537,122 in the week ending June 6, a decrease of 82,886 from the previous week.
The chart below presents the top 10 states ranked by the number of advanced initial claims for the week ending June 6. Like the previous week, California, Georgia and Florida still reported the most advanced initial claims. California led the way with 258,060 initial claims, followed by Georgia with 134,711 initial claims and Florida with 110,520 initial claims. South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming had the least advanced initial claims across all the states.
Compared to the previous week, California (+29,426), Massachusetts (+17,102) and New York (+12,422) reported the largest increases in advanced initial claims for the week ending June 6. Texas (-16,941), Georgia (-14,452), and Michigan (-10,786) had the largest decreases in advanced initial claims.
