Weekly Jobless Claims Dips Below One Million Claims for the Week Ending August 8th, 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 963,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday August 8^th. A decrease of 228,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Well below the peak of 6.9 million which dates back to the week ending March 28^th.  Claims have dropped below 1 million for the first time in twenty weeks. The 4-week moving average was 1,252,750, a decrease of 86,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This week’s new claims brought the twenty-week total to 56.344 million. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims during the week ending 1^st August was 15,486,000, a decrease of 604,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Continuing claims remain below 20 million for the sixth week in a row. The 4-week moving average was 16,169,500 a decrease of 454,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 10.6% for the week ending August 1^st, a decrease of 0.4 % point from the previous week’s unrevised rate.