Weekly Jobless Claims Drop in the Week Ending May 1, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 498,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, May 1, 2021 — a decrease of 92,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for this average of initial claims since March 14, 2020, when it was 256,000. The 4-week moving average was 560,000 — a decrease of 61,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) during the week ending April 24, 2021 was 3,690,000 — an increase of 37,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 3,675,750 — a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 28, 2020, when it was 3,611,750. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6% for the week ending April 24, 2021, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate.