Weekly Jobless Claims Remain Above Million in the Week Ending August 22nd, 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 1,006,000 Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday August 22^nd. A decrease of 98,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Still well below the peak of 6.9 million which dates back to the week ending March 28^th.  Claims are once again back over 1 million, where they have been for the past 20 of 21 weeks. The 4-week moving average was 1,068,000, a decrease of 107,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This week’s new claims brought the twenty-one-week total to 58.456 million. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, known as continuing claims during the week ending 15^th August was 14,535,000, a decrease of 223,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Continuing claims remain below 20 million for the seventh week in a row. The 4-week moving average was 15,215,250, a decrease of 604,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 9.9% for the week ending 15^th August, a decrease of 0.2 % point from the previous week’s unrevised rate.