Weekly Jobless Claims Modestly Decline in Week Ending June 20th

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 1.48 million Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday June 20th.  A decline of 60,000 from the previous week’s revised level.  It marks the twelfth straight week of declines in initial claims since the week ending March 28th, when it hit a record peak of 6.9 million. The four-week moving average decreased to 1,620,750 from a revised average of 1,781,500 in the previous week. This week’s new claims brought the fourteen-week total to 47.3 million. The number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims, declined by 767,000 to a seasonally adjusted level of 19.52 million for the week ending June 13^th. It is the first week that continuing claims have fallen below 20 million since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The four-week moving average was 20,421,250, a decrease of 329,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate declined by -0.5% to 13.4% for the week ending June 13^th. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 023% point from 14.1% to 13.9%.