U.S. Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Dropped in Latest Week

Initial claims for unemployment insurance decrease by 19,000 to 204,000 (-8.9% y/y) during the week ended December 31 from the previous week’s revised level of 223,000 from 225,000. A level of 230,000 had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey.

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 213,750, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week’s average of 220,500, revised from 221,000. It remained well below an early-August high of 249,500 but also well above an early-April low of 170,500.

In the week ended December 24, continued weeks claimed for unemployment insurance dropped 24,000 to 1.694 million (-6.2% y/y) from to 1.718 million in the prior week, revised from 1.710 million. The 4-week moving average was 1.688 million, a rise of 6,000 from the previous week’s 1.682 million, revised from 1.680 million.

The insured unemployment rate in the week ended December 24 was steady at 1.2%. The insured unemployment rate edged up to 1.2% in late November from 1.0% in early that month. It had been as low as 0.9% between May and July.

In the week ended December 17, the total number of continued weeks claimed in all unemployment insurance programs was 1.601 million (-7.0% y/y), down from 1.620 million the week prior. This total includes federal employees, newly discharged veterans, extended benefits, and other specialized programs and is not seasonally adjusted. Claims in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation are no longer included in the main Labor Department press release, as both programs have expired.

The insured rates of unemployment in regular programs vary across states. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending December 17 were in Alaska (2.27%), New Jersey (2.11%), Minnesota (1.99%), California (1.90%), Puerto Rico (1.87%), Rhode Island (1.80%), Montana (1.78%), Massachusetts (1.77), New York (1.66%), and Washington (1.61%). The lowest rates were in Virginia (0.25%), Alabama (0.26%), Kansas (0.31%), and New Hampshire (0.36%). Other state insured rates of unemployment in regular programs include Illinois (1.53%), Pennsylvania (1.43%), Texas (0.86%) and Florida (0.41%). These state rates are not seasonally adjusted.

Data on weekly unemployment claims going back to 1967 are contained in Haver's WEEKLY database, and they are summarized monthly in USECON. Data for individual states are in REGIONW. The expectations figure is from the Action Economics Forecast Survey, carried in the AS1REPNA database.