N.Y.’S initial unemployment claims fell last week

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It was a year ago we experienced a shocking explosion in new jobless claims, on the heels of the unprecedented shutdown of the economy . ... Now, seemingly braced for an upswing, we find ourselves armed with hope of not just an improving, but a likely booming economy.”

Bankrate.com’s Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick

Fewer workers in New York filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits last week, although nationally, the number increased.

Initial claims for the week ending March 13 fell to 45,662 in New York state, the U.S. Labor Department reported

Thursday morning, 2,562 fewer than the previous week’s 48,224 filings.

In the Capital Region — Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington counties — initial claims totaled 2,207 in the week ending March 13, down 295 from 2,502 the previous week, according to the state Labor Department.

Nationally, the number of claims rose 45,000 to 770,000, from 725,000, which was revised upward by 13,000 from 712,000 reported initially.

But overall, the number of workers receiving some form of unemployment benefits fell to 18,216,463 in the week ending

Feb. 27, from 20,118,468 the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Those figures lag initial claims data by a couple of weeks.

In his weekly commentary on the data, Bankrate.com’s Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick called the increase in initial claims nationwide “disappointing,” but recalled how bad the situation had been at this time last year.

“It was a year ago we experienced a shocking explosion in new jobless claims, on the heels of the unprecedented shutdown of the economy,” Hamrick said. “Some 3.3 million initial new claims were followed by nearly 6.9 million in the last week in March. New claims were in the 200,000 range before that happened.

“Now, seemingly braced for an upswing, we find ourselves armed with hope of not just an improving, but a likely booming economy,” Hamrick said.