by Calculated Risk on 7/15/2010 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending July 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 429,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 458,000. The 4-week moving average was 455,250, a decrease of 11,750 from the previous week's revised average of 467,000.
...
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 3 was 4,681,000, an increase of 247,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,434,000.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.

The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased this week by 11,750 to 455,250.

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average.

This is an improvement, and this is the lowest level for initial weekly claims since July 2008. The 4-week average of initial weekly claims has been at about the same level since December 2009 and the 4-week average of 455,250 is still high historically, and suggests a weak labor market.