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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Weekly initial unemployment claims at 500,000, highest since November 2009

by Calculated Risk on 8/19/2010 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending Aug. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 500,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 488,000. The 4-week moving average was 482,500, an increase of 8,000 from the previous week's revised average of 474,500.
...
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 7 was 4,478,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,491,000.
Weekly Unemployment Claims 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 increased this week by 8,000 to 482,500.

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. This is the highest level for initial claims - and also for the 4-week average - since November 2009.