Weekly Jobless Claims Inch Higher for the Week Ending September 19th, 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 870,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, September 19^th. An increase of 4,000 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.  The 4-week moving average was 878,250, a decrease of 35,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This week’s new claims brought the twenty-three-week total to 60.945 million. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims during the week ending September 12^th was 12,580,000, a decrease of 167,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Continuing claims remain below 20 million for the eleventh week in a row. The 4-week moving average was 13,040,750, a decrease of 478,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 8.6% for the week ending September 12^th a decline of 0.1% from the previous week’s revised averages.