Initial Claims for the Week Ended Aug 28

Updated 02-Sep-10 09:06 ET

Highlights

The initial claims level fell from 478,000 for the week ending Aug. 21 to 472,000 for the week ending Aug. 28.
The decline was roughly in-line with the Briefing.com forecast of 475,000 new claimants.
The continuing claims level remained on a slightly downward trend as claims fell from 4.479 mln for the week ending Aug. 14 to 4.456 mln for the week ending Aug. 21.
The Briefing.com consensus called for the continuing claims level to drop to 4.435 mln.

As it has been since the middle of November 2009, the initial claims level told the same old story. The labor market remains stuck in place between 450,000 and 500,000 new claimants and growth prospects for breaking out of its malaise seem well off in the distance.
Emergency unemployment claims fell from 4.827 mln for the week ending Aug. 7 to 4.546 mln for the week ending Aug. 14. There is nothing in the data that would suggest the decline is the result of an increase in job gains and instead is more likely due to claimants running out of benefits.

New claims have dropped below 500,000, but they are still well above the typical levels found during the last recession. As major companies finish their labor restructuring, many of the newly unemployed are coming from smaller businesses. This tends to cause more hardship on Main Street as many of these workers are unprepared for their job loss.

Category	Aug 28	Aug 21	Aug 14	Aug 7	Jul 31
Initial Claims	472K	478K	504K	488K	482K
4-Wk Moving Avg	486K	488K	484K	475K	459K
Continued Benefits		4456K	4479K	4515K	4491K
4-Wk Moving Avg		4485K	4514K	4536K	4528K