US Unemployment Claims Drop

227,000 people filed new claims last week.

A “Help Wanted” sign hangs in restaurant window in Medford — Reuters

The number of people filing for unemployment claims in the United States dropped last week.

The Labor Department says the seasonally adjusted initial claims was 227,000 for the week ending Aug. 31.

That is a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's 232,000.

The 4-week moving average was 230,000, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 231,500 to 231,750.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 17 were in New Jersey (2.8), Rhode Island (2.5), Puerto Rico (2.3), California (2.1), Minnesota (2.0), Connecticut (1.8), New York (1.8), Pennsylvania (1.8), Massachusetts (1.7) and Washington (1.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 24 were in New York (+2,604), Michigan (+1,322), Georgia (+1,166), North Dakota (+992), and Massachusetts (+748), while the largest decreases were in Texas (-1,515), Florida (-1,313), California (-965), Washington (-522), and Virginia (-517).

U.S.