Within the weekly jobless claims data, the Labor Dept also includes a category called Emergency Unemployment Compensation which includes those that have exhausted the 26 week period of receiving claims. It includes the extra 20 weeks that were added in the stimulus package and another 13 weeks above that for certain states that have unemployment rates above certain levels. The non seasonally adjusted level for the week ended July 4th totaled 2.63mm, up 107k from the week prior. I raise this point in light of the circumstances where those that haven’t found a job after 26 weeks of receiving claims are no longer included in the Continuing Claims portion of the data but are still receiving unemployment insurance.
