Weekly Jobless Claims Decline in the Week Ending October 16, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 290,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday October 16, 2021. This is a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level and the lowest level for initial job claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000. The 4-week moving average was 319,750 — a decrease of 15,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020, when it was 225,500.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) was 2,481,000 during the week ending October 9, 2021 — a decrease of 122,000 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 2,655,500 — a decrease of 84,750 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 1.8% for the week ending October 9, 2021 — a decrease of -0.1% from the from the previous week’s unrevised rate.