Weekly Jobless Claims Increase for Second Consecutive Week in the Week Ending September 18, 2021

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 351,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, September 18, 2021. This is an increase of 16,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 335,750, a decrease of 750 from the previous week’s revised average.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims, during the week ending September 11, 2021 was 2,845,000 — an increase of 131,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 2,804,000 — a decrease of 15,750 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 2.1% for the week ending September 11, 2021, an increase of 0.1% from the from the previous week’s revised rate.