Weekly Jobless Claims Rise For the Fourth Straight Week

Down.

Here’s our weekly unemployment applications aid report:

Applications for jobless benefits rose by 4,000 for the week ending April 13, bringing the total to 352,000, up from last week’s revised figure of 348,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

This is the fourth increase in four weeks.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, increased by 2,750, bringing the total to 361,250, up from the previous average of 358,500.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent for the week ending April 6, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate,” the report reads.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 6 was 3,068,000, a decrease of 35,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,103,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,083,000, a decrease of 2,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,085,250,” it adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 6 were New York (+20,120), North Carolina (+4,403), Ohio (+3,029), Michigan (+2,894), and Texas (+2,445).

Meanwhile, California (-12,893), Kentucky (-1,318), Pennsylvania (-1,299), Indiana (-1,066), and Nevada (-761) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

Markets are prepared to open mostly lower. Today’s report probably won’t help anything: