Number of Americans Seeking Unemployment Aid Rises

Let’s take a look at how we did last week in the unemployment aid applications department:

Applications for jobless benefits increased by 15,000 for the week ending September 14, bringing the total to 309,000, up from last week’s questionable figure of 294,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

Recall last week’s Labor Department report was suspect due to computer-related issues and the Labor Day holiday. This week’s reported was all too expected.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, fell by 7,000, bringing the total to 314,750, down from the previous unrevised average of 321,750.

"The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending September 7, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate," the report reads.

"The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending September 7 was 2,787,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,815,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,885,000, a decrease of 54,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,939,000," it adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending September 7 were Tennessee (+681), Oklahoma (+601), Mississippi (+298), Maine (+219), and South Carolina (+192).

Meanwhile, California (-25,412), New York (-2,260), Florida (-1,808), Oregon (-1,738), and Pennsylvania (-1,295) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

Markets are still reacting to the Federal Reserve's surprise announcement Wednesday that it would not be tapering its quantitative easing policies: