New York’s initial jobless claims drop 12 percent

The number of people applying for new unemployment-insurance benefits in New York state in the week ended July 13, fell by 4,743, or 12 percent, to 34,712.

The state saw fewer layoffs in the transportation, educational services, and health care and social assistance industries, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release issued today.

The decline came after New York posted a three-month high of 39,455 claims the week before.

Michigan is the only state that had a bigger decline in unemployment claims, with 11,969, in the week ended July 13 than New York.

Despite the fall in new claims, the number of New Yorkers continuing to receive unemployment benefits rose 10 percent in the latest week to 248,765 from the previous week’s 226,186 continued claims, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The state data is not seasonally adjusted.

The U.S. Labor Department also reported today that nationwide the number of people applying for new unemployment benefits increased by 7,000 to 343,000 for the week ended July 20, compared to the revised figure of 336,000 for the week before. Analysts had been expecting about 340,000 initial claims, according to Yahoo Finance.

The four-week moving average for national initial jobless claims decreased by 1,250 to 345,250 in the latest week. The U.S. data is seasonally adjusted.

The Labor Department will release state data for new unemployment-benefit filings for the week ended July 20 next week.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com