Weekly Jobless Claims Decline Further in the Week Ending May 15, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 444,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday May 15, 2021 — a decrease of 34,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for this average of initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000. The 4-week moving average was 504,750 — a decrease of 30,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims during the week ending 8th May 2021 was 3,751,000 — an increase of 111,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 3,681,000 an increase of 24,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7% for the week ending May 8, 2021 — an increase of 0.1% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.