U.S. Unemployment for the Week Ending July 25th Up for Second Week in a Row

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 1.434 million Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, July 25th. An increase of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised level. It was the second week in a row where claims increased. But remains well below the record peak of 6.9 million set in the week ending March 28th. Claims continue to remain above 1 million for the nineteenth week in a row. The 4-week moving average was 1,368,500, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week’s revised average. This week’s new claims brought the eighteen-week total to 54.191 million. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate, commonly known as continuing claims, was 11.6 percent for the week ending July 18, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 18 was 17,018,000, an increase of 867,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 46,000 from 16,197,000 to 16,151,000. The 4-week moving average was 17,058,250, a decrease of 435,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 11,500 from 17,505,250 to 17,493,750.