by Calculated Risk on 3/19/2009 08:32:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending March 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 646,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000. The 4-week moving average was 654,750, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average of 651,000.
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The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 7 was 5,473,000, an increase of 185,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 5,288,000.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows weekly claims and continued claims since 1971.

The four week moving average is at 654,750, the highest since 1982.

Continued claims are now at 5.473 million - the all time record (although not if adjusted by covered employment - I'll post the normalized graph next week).

Another weak employment report ...