by Calculated Risk on 12/08/2011 08:30:00 AM
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline to 381,000
The DOL reports:
In the week ending December 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 381,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 404,000. The 4-week moving average was 393,250, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 396,250.
The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrE2aWM0x_q-fAnvsnmgr2qHOYRD0OlDnWBLwtZEQo3H45Z0JZ05Jn_qU1TfjvBLQFUrQx15aB0z14HgH5boVmEZMpyfrWt9Xxx-n0XbMA_0vy3haglD2D9zieMjQQY2kdou3u/s320/WeeklyDec122011.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 393,250.
This is the fourth week in a row with the 4-week average below 400,000, and this is the lowest level for claims since February.
And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDtc5ohul-_D5JyRadD0GhpJlkWGte8f5yMxnb7xXCSropoefMMH6Cxcl_JjmTtY3Qwh23i_hq3l3TYC2aPwjOHPcOKGuI5eufMpPlPT4gvyOk0kzWxlD997N_dYw-HKJS-KMf/s320/WeeklyLongDec122011.jpg)