by Bruce Walker
New unemployment claims dropped slightly in Michigan last week, a trend also reflected in national numbers reported by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
The week-over-week numbers reported for Michigan the week ending July 4 show 34,470 DOL new initial claims, a decrease of 3,839 initial unemployment claims from the previous week’s 38,309 new claims.
Total unemployment claims in Michigan for the week ending July 4 were 525,843 claims, down 108,110 from the previous week’s 633,593 claims.
The DOL also reported an estimated 1.3 million new unemployment claims were filed nationally in the week ending July 4, down 99,000 new claims from the previous week.
Continued claims, which count workers who have filed claims for at least two weeks in a row, were at 18.1 million nationally for the week ending June 27, a decrease of 698,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Continued claims lag a week behind new claims data.
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Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
