S initial jobless claims and continuing claims for the current week
- prior week 779K revised to 812K
- Initial jobless claims 793K vs. 760K estimate
- 4 week moving average of initial claims 823K vs. 856.5K last week
- Continuing claims 4545K vs. 4420K estimate. Prior week 4690K vs. 4592K previously reported
- 4 week moving average of continuing claims 4748.75K vs. 4906.25K (revised)
- Pandemic unemployment assistance 8,715,306 vs 7,218,801 last week (was 7,217,713). That is a gain of 1,496,505
- 50 states reported 4,777,842 continuing claims for pandemic emergency unemployment compensation benefits vs. a revised 3,604,894 last week or +1,172,948
- The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 30 were in California (+51,025), New York (+11,140), Florida (+6,322), Rhode Island (+4,684), and Pennsylvania (+3,844),
- The largest decreases were in Illinois (-55,473), Kansas (-7,496), Mississippi (-3,107), Ohio (-2,181), and New Jersey (-2,156).
The claims and continuing claims were higher than expectations, but lower than the revised higher numbers last week. The claims for initial and continuing pandemic emergency assistance both rose sharply. As expressed by Fed officials, employment is well off full employment levels.
