Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase, 4-Week average over 400,000

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending April 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 429,000, an increase of 25,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 404,000. The 4-week moving average was 408,500, an increase of 9,250 from the previous week's revised average of 399,250.

Click on graph for larger image in graph gallery.

This graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims for the last 40 years. The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased this week to 408,250.

Weekly claims have increased over the last few weeks, and this is the first time the four-week average was above 400,000 in two months.