Georgia’s Unemployment Rate For October Hits 7-Year Low

The Labor Department reported Thursday that fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week, fresh evidence that companies are confident enough in the economy to hold onto their workers.

“The trend in initial claims remains very encouraging”, said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc.in West Chester, Pennsylvania, who accurately projected the decrease in claims. Bloomberg and Dow Jones were both were calling for 270,000 as the consensus estimate.

According to the Labor Department, new claims declined by 5,000 to 271,000 in the week to 14 November, in line with expectations.

The four-week moving average of claims, which evens out weekly ups and downs, rose by 3,000 to 270,750 last week. That compares with an average of 263,250 during the comparable employment survey period for October. “Over-the-year, our employers created 97,100 jobs, which is a 2.3 percent growth rate and stronger than the 2 percent national job growth rate”, said Comm. Butler. Employers added 271,000 jobs in October, the largest monthly gain this year. “We’re going to see job growth pull back toward trend, which is 200,000 to 225,000 and still very solid”.

At the same time, the report said continuing claims, a reading on the number of people receiving ongoing unemployment assistance, dipped by 2,000 to 2.175 million in the week ended November 7th.

Another reading was the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate, which was unchanged at 1.6% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.