Weekly Jobless Claims Fall for First Time in Four Weeks

Down.

And now it’s time for our weekly unemployment applications aid report:

Applications for jobless benefits fell by 16,000 for the week ending April 20, bringing the total to 339,000, down from last week’s revised figure of 355,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

This is the lowest level this number has been in six weeks.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, fell by 4,500, bringing the total to 357,500, up from the previous average of 362,000.

“The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending April 13, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate,” the report reads.

“The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemploymentduring the week ending April 13 was 3,000,000, a decrease of 93,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,093,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,071,750, a decrease of 17,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,089,250,” the report adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 13 were California (+24,303), Texas (+3,050), Florida (+2,623), Indiana (+2,372), and Arizona (+1,296).

Meanwhile, New York (-14,113), Michigan (-5,998), New Jersey (-4,204), Ohio (-3,036), and Illinois (-2,455) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

Markets are posed to open higher today: