The rate of unemployment in the U.S. continued its decline last week, reaching a low not seen since June 2007. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 5 was 2,507,000, a decrease of 79,000 from the previous week's revised level, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
That represents the lowest level for insured unemployment since June 30, 2007, when it was 2,501,000.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9% for the week ending July 5, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s rate of 2%.
The amount of initial claims for unemployment fell from the previous week’s total as well. The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims fell to 302,000 for the week ending July 12.
The previous week’s total was revised up to 305,000. It was originally reported to be 304,000. The 4-week moving average was 309,000, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since June 2, 2007 when it was 307,500.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs totaled 369,591 in the week ending July 12, an increase of 47,079 (or 14.6%) from the previous week.
But that was still below what the seasonal factors expected, according to the DOL. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 49,945 (or 15.5%) from the previous week.
There were 410,974 initial claims in the same week in 2013.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 28 was 2,446,488, a decrease of 20,292 from the previous week. There were 4,516,255 persons claiming benefits in all programs during the same period in 2013.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending June 21 were in Puerto Rico (3.9%), Alaska (3.4%), Connecticut (3%), New Jersey (3%), Pennsylvania (2.8%), California (2.6%), Nevada (2.6%), Rhode Island (2.6%), Illinois (2.4%), and Massachusetts (2.3%).
