Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Advance figures for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims for the week ending Oct. 16 decreased by 23,000 to 452,000, according to the Department of Labor.

The previous week’s revised first-time jobless claims averaged 462,250 and the 4-week moving average was 458,000, a decrease of 4,250, DOL officials said in a weekly report.

Employers continue to fire workers at a pace that makes employment gains difficult because hiring still lags in the weak economy.

In addition, the “advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5 percent for the week ending Oct. 9, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.5 percent,” the DOL said.

That means 3.5 percent of unemployed Americans are covered by unemployment insurance. There are several reasons for the disparity in the rate of unemployment versus the rate of unemployed workers covered by unemployment compensation payments. Some jobless Americans did not previously work at jobs that were covered by the program, they did not have enough credits to apply for benefits when they lost their job, or they have been unemployed long enough to have exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits.

“Extended benefits were available in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin during the week ending Oct. 2,” according to the DOL.

View full post on Labor Stories