Weekly Jobless Claims Continued to Decline in the Week Ending July 31, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 385,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, July 31, 2021, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 394,000, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims during the week ending July 24, 2021 was 2,930,000, a decrease of 366,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,770,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,188,250, a decrease of 109,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020, when it was 2,071,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1% for the week ending July 24, 2021, a decrease of 0.3% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.