by Calculated Risk on 5/26/2011 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending May 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 424,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 414,000. The 4-week moving average was 438,500, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average of 440,250.

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 438,500.

The 4-week average is back to the level of last November when there were fewer payroll jobs being added each month - and that is very concerning.