Number of Americans Applying for Unemployment Aid Ticks Down Slightly

Let’s turn once more to our weekly unemployment aid applications report:

Applications for jobless benefits fell by 5,000 for the week ending September 21, bringing the total to 305,000, up from last week’s revised figure of 310,000, the Labor Department announced on Thursday.

If accurate, this is the second-lowest posting in six years.

The four-week moving average, a “less volatile” figure, fell by 7,000, bringing the total to 308,000, down from the previous unrevised average of 315,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending September 14, an increase 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 14 was 2,823,000, an increase of 35,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,788,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,842,500, a decrease of 42,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,885,250,” it adds.

The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending September 14 were California (+22,611), Florida (+3,946), Georgia (+2,690), Nevada (+2,504), and New York (+1,871).

Meanwhile, Oklahoma (-439), Tennessee (-404), Kansas (-351), Massachusetts (-304), and Idaho (-294) posted the biggest decreases in initial claims.

Markets are performing decently as of this writing: