Unemployment claims rise marginally in second week of February

2/17/2011

New statistics from the United States Department of Labor show that the number of initial unemployment claims rose marginally by 25,000 during the second week of February, indicating that some small business owners are still being cautious when it comes to adding new employees to their workforce.

The number of adjusted initial claims was 410,000 during the week ending with February 12, up from 385,000 during the previous week. As a result, the four-week average also increased by 1,750 to 417,750.

"The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.6 percent during the week ending February 5, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week," notes the U.S. Department of Labor. "The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming unemployment insurance benefits in state programs totaled 4,544,310, a decrease of 62,137 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 4.3 percent and the volume was 5,597,688."

Despite the fact that some small business owners are hesitant to hire new workers, entrepreneurs in California are especially optimistic about 2011 as a whole. The majority expect to take advantage of the greater availability of commercial loans to achieve business success this year, according to Citibank.