Claims held even at 505,000 after three consecutive weeks of declines. Last week, initial claims dropped by 12,000. In the previous week, there were 20,000 fewer claims. The week prior to that saw a drop of 1,000 first time claims.
In the week ending Nov. 14, the four-week rolling average dropped by 6,500 to 514,000.
The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10.2 percent.
The biggest increases in claims for the week ending Nov. 7 were reported by Michigan with 6,001 additional claims; New Jersey, which added 4,153; and Pennsylvania, which added 3,552, the report said.
State-by-state statistics lag a week behind the national report.
For the week ending Nov. 7, the biggest decreases were reported by Florida, with a decline of 1,915 claims; Arkansas, declining by 734; and Oregon with 274 fewer claims than the week of Oct. 31.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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