by Calculated Risk on 6/09/2011 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending June 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 427,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 426,000. The 4-week moving average was 424,000, a decrease of 2,750 from the previous week's revised average of 426,750.

The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims for the last 40 years.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased this week to 424,000.

This is the ninth straight week with initial claims above 400,000, and the 4-week average is at about the same the level as in January. This suggests the labor market weakness in May is continuing into early June.