Weekly Jobless Claims Rise Another 2.123 Million for Week Ending May 23rd

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 2.123 million Americans made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday May 23rd. A decrease of 323,000 from the previous week’s revised level. Although the numbers are high, it’s the lowest total since reaching its peak in the week ending March 28th. However, over the past ten weeks more than 40.8 American’s have filed for unemployment benefits. The number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, also known as continuing claims, declined by 3.86 million, from 24,912,000 to 21,052,000 in the week ending May 16th, suggesting that some unemployed workers have either found new jobs or have been called back to work. The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate decreased by 2.6% points to 14.5% for the week ending May 16th. The first drop in 11-weeks.