Haver Analytics Says Unemployment Claims Rose ‘Marginally’ at End of September

Haver Analytics reported calculated that unemployment claims in the United States rose marginally during the last week of September.

In the week ended Sept. 27, the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits reached 224,269, up from the previous week’s 218,589, Reuters reported Monday (Oct. 6), citing data from Haver Analytics.

The firm also found that the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid rose to 1.921 million during the week ended Sept. 20, up from 1.916 million during the previous week, according to the report.

The Labor Department did not publish unemployment figures for the last week of September due to the government shutdown, the report said. However, states continued to gather the relevant data and submit it to the department’s website, per the report.

The Haver Analytics data points to a continuing trend of low levels of both layoffs and hiring, the report said.

It was reported Friday (Oct. 3) that Goldman Sachs Group calculated that initial claims for unemployment benefits in the U.S. reached 224,000 during the week ended Sept. 27, up from 218,000 the week before.

The bank also determined that the number of people receiving benefits declined to 1.91 million during the week ended Sept. 20, down from 1.93 million the previous week.

It was also reported Friday that the Chicago Fed used private “real-time” data and other information to produce its own unofficial estimate of the national unemployment rate and determined that it remained about the same as the previous month at 4.3%.

Like Monday’s report from Reuters, other reports have suggested that both the number of layoffs and the amount of hiring in the U.S. have remained low.

Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said Thursday (Oct. 2) that the labor market is “stagnating” amid factors like cost increases and artificial intelligence adoption.

Payroll processor ADP said in a Wednesday (Oct. 1) press release that U.S. employers “have been cautious with hiring.” The firm found that the private sector employed 32,000 fewer people in September than it did the month before and that job creation continued to slow across most sectors.