Unemployment Claims Rise from Historic Lows

After hitting historic lows the previous week, initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked up this week, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

For the week ending April 9, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims rose to 185,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week, which revised up by 1,000 from 166,000 to 167,000. The four-week moving average rose to 172,250, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised average.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was unchanged at 1.1 percent for the week ending April 2. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 2 fell to 1,475,000, a decrease of 48,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level of 1,523,000. The four-week moving average fell to 1,511,500, a decrease of 29,750 from the previous week’s unrevised average of 1,541,250.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 222,545 in the week ending April 9, an increase of 28,151 (14.5 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 6,692 (3.4 percent) from the previous week. Labor reported 620,420 initial claims in the comparable week in 2021.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate fell to 1.1 percent during the week ending April 2, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 1,571,118, a decrease of 80,061 (4.8 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 28,941 (1.8 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,902,729.

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending March 26 fell to 1,703,298, a decrease of 19,733 from the previous week. Labor reported 17,005,545 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2021.