Weekly Jobless Claims Report

Texas initial jobless claims for the week ending April 10 rose to 20,936 from 16,529 the previous week. The hike of 4,407 was the largest week-to-week increase since the Jan. 9 holiday rebound of 30,000 initial claims. The four-week moving average for initial claims – a steadier measure of unemployment claim activity – increased to 18,385.

Continued claims (those receiving benefits for two weeks or more) declined by 782 to reach 208,507 – or 17.7 percent lower from a year ago.

Nationally, initial claims for the week ending April 10 rose by 24,000 from the previous week’s unrevised figure of 460,000. Total continued claims rose 73,000 to 4.639 million from 4.566 million the previous week. Bloomberg’s Timothy R. Homan reports on the surveyed predictions made by economists to estimate jobless claims for the week ending April 10:

Economists forecast claims would fall to 440,000 from a previously reported 460,000 the prior week, according to the median of 44 projections in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from 415,000 to 451,000.