Unemployment Weekly Claims Fall to 19-Month Low

Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by another 6,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, the second consecutive week at under 300,000 claims and the lowest level in 19 months.

The report said for the week ending October 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims fell to 290,000, the lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000. The previous week’s level revised up by 3,000 from 293,000 to 296,000. The four-week moving average fell to 319,750, a decrease of 15,250 from the previous week’s revised average to its lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 225,500. The previous week’s average revised up by 750 from 334,250 to 335,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 1.8 percent for the week ending October 9, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending October 9 fell to 2,481,000, a decrease of 122,000 from the previous week’s revised level to the lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,770,000. The previous week’s level revised up 10,000 from 2,593,000 to 2,603,000. The four-week moving average fell to 2,655,500, a decrease of 84,750 from the previous week’s revised average to its lowest level since March 21, 2020, when it was 2,071,750.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 256,304 in the week ending October 16, a decrease of 24,293 (8.7 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 18,500 (6.6 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 759,081 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending October 16, 35 states reported 2,338 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 1.6 percent during the week ending October 9, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 2,169,457, a decrease of 93,319 4.1 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 28,025 (1.2 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 5.5 percent and the volume was 8,079,362.

The report said the total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending October 2 fell to 3,279,036, a decrease of 369,992 from the previous week. Labor reported 23,755,845 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in

the comparable week in 2020.