Initial jobless claims filed the traditional way through state unemployment offices fell slightly in the seven days ended June 13, from 1.6 million in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the 10th decline in a row.
Economists polled by MarketWatch had forecast a seasonally adjusted 1.3 million new claims.
If people who applied for unemployment benefits through a temporary federal program are included, new claims totaled an unadjusted 2.2 million in mid-June.
Yet the number of people who are actually receiving traditional jobless benefits barely fell to 20.5 million in the week ended May 30. These so-called continuing claims, reported with a one-week lag, had peaked in the middle of May at nearly 23 million, but are declining at an agonizingly slow pace.
Click here to read the full report from Jeffry Bartash at MarketWatch.com.
The grudging decline in continuing jobless claims appears to offer proof. They give a better idea of how many people are still out of work, whereas new claims only reveal how many people may have lost their jobs at some point during the crisis. At least several million people have since returned to their jobs as the economy has reopened.
