by Calculated Risk on 6/02/2011 08:40:00 AM
Thursday, June 02, 2011
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline slightly to 422,000
The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:
In the week ending May 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 422,000, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 428,000. The 4-week moving average was 425,500, a decrease of 14,000 from the previous week's revised average of 439,500.The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims for the last 40 years.
![Weekly Unemployment Claims](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwM4AkYm61reu_ppvMUpPWsbzpZA4k1wVTBD9bJpZkYpfn0GhHG6H4SrulVxlY_DQKM5QWYjUHFtihaKpg-8QEu9EZbii1yiE5I1rdTpZomyp2K-FjIsyKUJ8sAamWrTsxG9gI_Q/s320/WeeklyClaimsJune2.jpg)
The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased this week to 425,500.
This is the eight straight week with initial claims above 400,000, and the 4-week average is at about the same the level as in January when there were fewer payroll jobs being added.