US Weekly Jobless Claims Decline in the Week Ending February 18th

The US Department of Labor is reporting that the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 192,000 during the week ending on Saturday, February 18th. This is a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 195,000 (originally reported as 194,000). The 4-week moving average was 191,250—an increase of 1,500 from the previously week’s revised level of 189,750 (originally reported as 189,500).

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims, during the week ending February 11th was 1,654,000. This is a decrease of 37,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 1,691,000 (originally reported as 1,696,000). The 4-week moving average was 1,668,750—a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 1,671,750 (originally reported as 1,673,000).

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.1% for the week ending February 11th, a decrease of 0.1% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.