Jobless Claims Rise Amid Hurricanes, Automaker Layoffs and Boeing Strike

The effects of Hurricane Helene, cutbacks in the auto industry and furloughs related to a strike at Boeing drove U.S. jobless claims to their highest total in a year.

During the week ended Saturday (Oct. 5), there were 258,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance — a total that was 33,000 higher than the previous week and the highest number since Aug. 5, 2023, the Department of Labor said in a Thursday (Oct. 10) press release.

The week’s number of initial claims topped all estimates of economists who had been surveyed by Bloomberg, according to a Thursday report.

Bloomberg reported that the greatest number of layoffs were recorded in Michigan, a state that is the site of many auto assembly plants, including some owned by Jeep and Ram parent firm Stellantis, which had announced plans to eliminate jobs.

In addition, more than half of the increase in initial claims was tied to states like North Carolina and Florida that were impacted by hurricanes Milton and Helene, according to the report.

The report added that while the storms prevented many people in those states from working, it may have also prevented some from applying for unemployment benefits — suggesting there may be some volatility in this data in the coming weeks.

Reuters reported Thursday that the 258,000 initial claims filed during the week surpassed the 230,000 that had been forecast by the economists it polled.

Together with the hurricane-related rise in claims in North Carolina and Florida, Reuters attributed the increase to a four-week-old strike at Boeing that led to furloughs by the plane manufacturer and a rise in claims in the state of Washington.

In comments submitted to the Department of Labor and published in the agency’s Thursday press release, Michigan attributed its rise in initial claims during the prior week — the week ended Sept. 28 — to “layoffs in the manufacturing and in management of companies and enterprises industries.”

The Department of Labor also said in the release that during the week ended Oct. 5, the four-week moving average of initial claims was 231,000, up 6,750 from the previous week.

It added that during the week ended Sept. 28, the insured unemployment rate was 1.2%, unchanged from the previous week, and the insured unemployment number was 1,861,000, up 42,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 1,819,000.