[Analysis Shows U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Dropped to 226,000 Last Week]
Analysis indicates that for the week ending November 8, U.S. initial jobless claims fell to approximately 226,000, down from 228,000 the previous week. Due to the government shutdown, the Department of Labor has not released weekly reports since September 25 but has provided downloadable data for most states. The latest data for Massachusetts and the Virgin Islands is missing, so the four-week average was used as a substitute. Continuing jobless claims fell to 1.94 million last week, down from 1.96 million the previous week. Initial claims under the U.S. Federal Employees Unemployment Compensation program increased by 5,702, marking the third consecutive week of decline, but continuing claims for the week ending November 1 rose to 38,387, the highest since January 2019.