Jobless claims back up w/e 10/13/12, highest in 4 months, includes Calif. jobless apps. ‘delayed’ from previous week, prev. week also revised up

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10/18/12, “Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise to 388,000,“ Dow Jones Newswires via Fox Business News

“The number of U.S. workers filing applications for jobless benefits rebounded last week, though numbers so far this month have been distorted by technical factors.

Initial jobless claims…were up by 46,000 to a seasonally adjusted 388,000 in the week ended Oct. 13, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast 365,000 new applications for jobless benefits last week.

In the previous week, jobless claims dropped by 27,000 because of an unexpected shift in seasonal reporting by one state. That state–California–reported fewer claims than expected, which accounted for the large decrease. There were nearly 5,000 fewer layoffs in the service and retail industries in California for the week ended Oct. 6, according to the Labor Department report….

“These types of things happen several times a year,” a Labor Department official said Thursday. “It tends to be temporary.”

Raw figures show claims typically drop toward the end of the quarter and spike at the start of the next quarter. A worker may decide to wait to file until the end of the quarter in an effort to boost his weekly check because the amount is based on a rolling average of income before the layoff. As a result, there can be a bulk of claims that are not processed until the turn of the quarter.

Claims for the prior week were revised up to 342,000 from an initially reported 339,000.”…

 

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This week includes applications that had been “delayed” from California’s previous week’s numbers.

 

10/18/12, “Weekly Jobless Claims Drop Proves to Be Short-Lived,“ AP via CNBC

 

"Weekly applications for U.S. unemployment benefits jumped 46,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 388,000, the highest in four months. The increase represents a rebound from the previous week’s sharp drop. Both swings were largely due to technical factors.

 

The Labor Department says the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell slightly to 365,500, a level consistent with modest hiring. Last week, California reported a large drop in applications,pushing down the overall figure to the lowest since February 2008. This week, it reported a significant increase as it processed applications delayed from the previous week. (Read More: Why Jobless Claims May Not Be as Good as Market Thinks.)

 

A department spokesman says the seasonally adjusted numbers “are being distorted … by an issue of timing.”…The prior week’s figure was revised upto show 3,000 more applications than 

previously reported to 342,000….Growth slowed to a tepid annual rate of 1.3 percent in the April-June quarter, down from 2 percent in the previous quarter.”

 

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“A whopper of a miss.” 

 

10/18/12, “Reality Storms Back As Initial Claims Explode Higher By 46K From Last Week’s Upward Revised Aberration,“ Zero Hedge

 

“So much for last week’s aberration initial claims print of 339K (revised higher of course to 342K). With expectations of an increase to 365K, the DOL just came out with a whopper of a miss, the largest in three months, at 388K….Remember: this number will be revised to 391K next week. So much for single print indicative of a recovery....The rate of change was a 13.45% from last week: the highest in five years!…What is however worse, is that it is becoming increasingly clear that nobody at the DOL knows what is actually going on following a statement by the Labor Dept that “it appeared that state-level administrative issues were distorting the data“, and numbers are simply picked out of thin air.“…

 

 

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