Posted by Joseph Y. Calhoun, III

Jobless claims fell last week:

In the week ending Oct. 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 514,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 524,000. The 4-week moving average was 531,500, a decrease of 9,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 540,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.5 percent for the week ending Oct. 3, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate of 4.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Oct. 3 was 5,992,000, a decrease of 75,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,067,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,082,750, a decrease of 68,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,151,000.  

The improvement in claims is agonizingly slow, but it is improvement. I’m still not sure how much real improvement there is in the jobs market though since there are a large contingent for whom benefits are expiring.