Weekly Jobless Claims Decline in the Week Ending January 1, 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 207,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, January 1, 2022. This is an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 204,50 — an increase of 4,750 from the previous week’s revised average.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) during the week ending December 25, 2021 was 1,754,000 — an increase of 36,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 7, 2020, when it was 1,715,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,798,750 — a decrease of 61,250 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 1.3% for the week ending December 25, 2021, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.