Weekly Jobless Claims Slightly Lower in the Week Ending May 21, 2022

The U.S. Department of Labor is reporting that an additional 210,000 Americans (seasonally adjusted) made their initial filing for unemployment benefits during the week ending on Saturday, May 21, 2022. This is a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s unrevised level. The 4-week moving average was 206,750, an increase of 7,250 from the previous week’s unrevised average.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment (known as continuing claims) during the week ending May 14, 2022, was 1,346,000—an increase of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The 4-week moving average was 1,347,500—a decrease of 14,250 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since January 17, 1970, when it was 1,340,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.0% for the week ending May 14, 2022, an increase of 0.1% from the previous week’s unrevised rate.