Weekly initial jobless claims declined slightly in the week ending June 13 and continuing claims, which lags initial jobless claims by one week, declined to 20.5 million in the week ending June 6. While some workers are returning to work, albeit slowly, as coronavirus restrictions are gradually eased, others are being laid off as companies are closing permanently in wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
The U.S. Department of Labor released the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending June 13. In the week ending June 13, the number of initial jobless claims declined slightly by 58,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 1,508,000, compared to the revised previous week’s claims of 1,566,000. It marks the eleventh 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 1,773,500, from a revised average of 2,008,000 in the previous week. This week’s new claims brought the thirteen-week total to 45.7 million.
Meanwhile, the number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims, declined slightly by 62,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 20,544,000 in the week ending June 6. The four-week moving average was 20,814,750, a decrease of 1,092,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate remained unchanged at 14.1% for the week ending June 6. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.3 percentage point from 14.4% to 14.1%.
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 1,433,027 in the week ending June 13, a decrease of 128,240 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 13. California, Georgia and New York had the most advanced initial claims. California led the way with 243,344 initial claims, followed by Georgia with 130,766 initial claims and New York with 96,299 initial claims. Like the previous week, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming had the least advanced initial claims across all the states.
Compared to the previous week, Texas (+4,219), Nevada (+3,651) and Washington (+2,974) reported the largest increases in advanced initial claims for the week ending June 13. Florida (-25,863), Oklahoma (-20,788), and Maryland (-18,736) had the largest decreases in advanced initial claims.
