by Bruce Walker
Although new claims dropped slightly from the previous week, Michigan’s unemployment reversed its downward trajectory in the weeks ending July 11 and July 18.
New claims fell by 2,647 during the last full week of July, from 24,596 the week prior to 21,949 the week ending July 25. That gain was offset by an increase of 54,440 new claims since July 11.
During the time period between July 18 and July 25, recurring unemployment claims in the state rose from 519,655 to 574,095.
In the week ending July 25, 1,434,000 new claims were reported nationally, bringing the national recurring unemployment number to 16.9 million.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 11.6 percent for the week ending July 18, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the week ending July 11, the DOL reported. The unemployment rate report lags new claims by one week.
California once again led the nation in new unemployment claims, with 249,007 last week.
The latest weekly unemployment report was released on the same day the U.S. Department of Commerce said that the nation’s Gross Domestic Product dropped an estimated 32.9 percent when adjusted annually, the worst decline since at least World War II. GDP is generally viewed as a measure of a country’s economic health. The U.S. began measuring GDP in 1947.
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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.
