Initial Claims Unchanged from Previous Week

Initial claims for unemployment insurance held steady last week as employment—or lack thereof—went into a holding pattern for the holidays, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

For the week ending December 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was unchanged at 205,000. The previous week’s level revised down by 1,000 from 206,000 to 205,000. The four-week moving average rose to 206,250, an increase of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate held at 1.4 percent for the week ending December 11, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 11 fell to 1,859,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s to its lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,770,000. The four-week moving average fell to 1,919,750, a decrease of 49,000 from the previous week to its lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,730,750. The previous week’s average revised up by 5,500 from 1,963,250 to 1,968,750.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 254,006 in the week ending December 18, a decrease of 11,686 (4.4 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 11,745 (4.4 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 854,497 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending December 18, 33 states reported 1,550 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate rose to 1.4 percent during the week ending December 11, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 1,830,635, an increase of 96,023 (5.5 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 104,088 (6.0 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 3.7 percent and the volume was 5,415,945.

The report said the total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending December 4 fell to 2,137,980, a decrease of 320,452 from the previous week. Labo reported 21,033,848 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.