Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline slightly to 428,000

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending June 25, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 428,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 429,000. The 4-week moving average was 426,750, an increase of 500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 426,250.

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 increased slightly this week to 426,750.

This is the 12th 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 continued into June.