Weekly Jobless Claims Decline in the Week Ending December 18, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 205,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, December 18, 2021. This is unchanged from last week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 206,250 — an increase of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) during the week ending December 11, 2021, was 1,859,000 — a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,770,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,919,750 — a decrease of 49,000 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020, when it was 1,730,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.4% for the week ending December 11, 2021. This is unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.