by Calculated Risk on 4/23/2009 08:49:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending April 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 640,000, an increase of 27,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 613,000. The 4-week moving average was 646,750, a decrease of 4,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 651,000.
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The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 11 was 6,137,000, an increase of 93,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 6,044,000.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The first graph shows weekly claims and continued claims since 1971.

The four week moving average is at 646,750.

Continued claims are now at 6.14 million - the all time record.

The second graph shows the 4-week average of initial weekly unemployment claims (blue, right scale), and total insured unemployed (red, left scale), both as a percent of covered employment.

This normalizes the data for changes in insured employment, and shows the initial unemployment and continued claims are both at the highest level since the early '80s.

This is another very weak report and shows continued weakness for employment.