by Calculated Risk on 1/19/2012 08:30:00 AM
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline to 352,000
The DOL reports:
In the week ending January 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 352,000, a decrease of 50,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 402,000. The 4-week moving average was 379,000, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 382,500.The previous week was revised up to 402,000 from 399,000.
The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2SiVEO5DcnflHV2R_p9O_nxZXMUDXS4pXg8knUuw-N3rX-H1ZFRpYmWgthOIcaKQzoOx529gQpUY6FdBn-hcByagTrug_yT5kRpaEl7diTXOx3u7KDiFcxvqlHuYZe0svwwP1/s320/WeeklyClaimsJan192012.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 379,000.
The 4-week moving average is well below 400,000.
And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghDJ-BUJ0JXEwQzXfVf7OuLX3BbtR0ZK5kq9G0kVUO56rT89bM7_pql9QyzZy17n-pLBTF0xuFCQ2peNKNQGoXFuOq-3b3mBOU_TkCCFDVEE85qLkqD5Ye7cbpTguiM5yZzhw9/s320/WeeklyLongJan192012.jpg)
This is the lowest level for weekly claims since April 2008.