U.S. weekly jobless claims rise moderately to 220,000

Doug Cunningham
·1 min read
UPI
New weekly job claims were up by a thousand to a seasonally adjusted 220,000, according to a Thursday report from the Labor Department. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI

Dec. 7 (UPI) -- New U.S. jobless claims rose slightly last week, according to Labor Department Data released Thursday.

Initial unemployment claims for the week ending Dec. 2 rose by 1,000 from the previous week to 220,000.

The four-week moving average for unemployment claims was 220,750, up 500 from last week's.

The insured unemployment rate -- the number of jobless people getting unemployment insurance payments as a percentage of the workforce -- was 1.2%.

The unadjusted total of all new state jobless claims was 293,511 for the week ending Dec. 2.

The biggest increases in initial unemployment claims were in Wisconsin, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Idaho.

The biggest decreases were in California, Texas, Oregon, Florida and New York.

Job growth, meanwhile, was modest in November. According to an ADP report Wednesday, private companies added 103,000 jobs in November as annual pay rose by 5.6%.

On Tuesday the Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed 8.73 million job openings in October, a 6.6% decline from September and the fewest openings since March 2021.

The Federal Reserve tracks the JOLTS numbers for signs of slack in the labor market. The decline in openings brought the ratio of open jobs to available employees down to 1.3 to 1, compared with 2 to 1 over the summer.

More monthly jobs data will be released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. October job creation was 150,000, according to the BLS, well below the average of 258,000 jobs added over 12 months.