The Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report has been released. Initial claims fell to 570K, which was at the high end of the Bloomberg consensus range (560K to 570K). Last week’s number was revised up 4,000 to 580K, so it is only a partial victory. From the report:

In the week ending Aug. 22, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 570,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 580,000. The 4-week moving average was 566,250, a decrease of 4,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 571,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.6 percent for the week ending Aug. 15, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 4.7 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 15 was 6,133,000, a decrease of 119,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 6,252,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,241,750, a decrease of 27,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 6,268,750.

The absolute numbers are still unacceptably high, but it’s nice that the trend has hit a wall. For those that care about actual people instead of trend data, I offer the unadjusted figures:

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 453,936 in the week ending Aug. 22, a decrease of 4,049 from the previous week. There were 345,127 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.3 percent during the week ending Aug. 15, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,673,467, a decrease of 135,105 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.4 percent and the volume was 3,175,006.

This is reassuring. The numbers are moving in the right direction. It’s nice to know the decrease isn’t only a product of seasonal adjustments.

The good / bad lists are back to offering encouragement:

The good list (-1000 or more): CA, TN, TX, WI, OH, NC, GA, SC, KY, MA, WA, IL, NY

The bad list (+1000 or more): FL, PA, MI

MI (the worst) was +4,068 vs CA (the best) at -6,286. That’s two weeks in a row that California topped the good list. The trade and service industries seemed to dominate the good comments. The auto industry was in both the good (OH, KY) and the bad (MI) lists.

This week’s bottom line: The numbers are decreasing from high levels, but expiring benefits should still be dominating any unemployment discussion.