Weekly Jobless Claims Decline in the Week Ending May 22, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 406,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, May 22, 2021 — a decrease of 38,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. This is the lowest level for this average of initial claims since March 14th, 2020, when it was 256,000. The 4-week moving average was 458,750 a decrease of 46,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) during the week ending May 15, 2021 was 3,642,000 — a decrease of 96,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 3,675,000 — a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% for the week ending May 15, 2021, a decrease of 0.1% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.