U.S. unemployment insurance claims level off

The U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning that the recent downward trend in new unemployment insurance claims came to a halt during the week ending Oct. 31.

There were 751,000 new claims filed for the week ending Oct. 31, the same number as it had reported last Thursday for the previous week.

The Labor Department also reported that the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Oct. 17 was 21,508,662.

There were 12,137 former federal civilian employees claiming unemployment insurance benefits for the week, an increase of 368 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 12,417, a decrease of 658 from the prior week.

The highest unemployment rates were in: Hawaii, 11.3%; the Virgin Islands, 9.6%; California, 9.5%; Nevada, 9.2%; New Mexico, 9.0%; Georgia, 7.6%; Puerto Rico, 7.6%; District of Columbia, 7.1%; Massachusetts, 6.9%; and Louisiana, 6.8%.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Oct. 24 were in: Illinois, up 6,190; Michigan, up 5,442; Massachusetts, up 2,483; Minnesota, up 1,848; and Connecticut, up 1,621.

The largest decreases were in: Texas, down 10,113; California, down 7,700; Florida, down 6,528; New York, down 3,291; and Louisiana, down 3,096.

Connecticut had 4,843 new applications for unemployment insurance benefits during the week ended Oct. 31, down 1,173 from the previous week”™s 6,016.

In New York, there were 45,391 new people filing for unemployment benefits, down 6,208 from the previous week”™s 51,599.