Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop As Hurricane Impact Is Less Than Expected

Initial jobless claims came in lower than expected on Thursday, after hurricane related job losses did not appear to rise sharply.

The U.S. Labor Department said new claims were 227,000 in the week ending October 19, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week's revised level.

The previous week had 242,000 claims.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending October 12 were in Georgia, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and South Carolina. Michigan and Florida had the largest drops in new claims.

The report did find that people who remain unemployed have ticked up as people struggle to find new employment.

The department said the 4-week moving average was 238,5000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised average.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for the week ending October 12 was 1,897,000, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week's revised level.

This is the highest level of unemployment since November 13, 2021.

This is a developing story.