The number of people applying for new unemployment-insurance benefits in New York state in the week ending July 27, fell by 1,181, or 6 percent, to 18,565.
The state saw fewer layoffs in the manufacturing, educational services, and transportation industries, according to a U.S. Department of Labor news release issued today.
The decline indicates an improving job market in New York and comes after jobless claims fell by 14,966, or 43 percent, in the prior week, and by 4,743, or 12 percent, in the week before that. Before these three weeks of falling claims in the state, New York had posted a three-month high of 39,455 jobless claims in the week ending July 6.
The state data is not seasonally adjusted.
The U.S. Labor Department also reported today that nationwide the number of people filing initial unemployment claims rose by 5,000 to 333,000 for the week ending Aug. 3, compared to the revised figure of 328,000 for the week before.
But analysts had been expecting a bigger increase in initial claims in the latest week to about 340,000, according to Yahoo Finance.
The four-week moving average for national initial jobless claims decreased by 6,250 to 335,500 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 ending Aug. 3 next week.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com