by Calculated Risk on 1/26/2012 08:30:00 AM
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 377,000
The DOL reports:
In the week ending January 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 377,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 356,000. The 4-week moving average was 377,500, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 380,000.The previous week was revised up to 356,000 from 352,000.
The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjozQf0mSfjNITpgTlqd-pt3H1nv5MoNedqL8KVrR3cIp6OMCPcBN7ZohuiwqR9DnWDelNExBeRn9hRaJJpwI9YEtTfXDlx0lPssGx7c2aJ63hiuPfIdy42PhGw4DEwFjDA64W5/s320/WeeklyClaimsJan262012.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 377,500.
The 4-week moving average remains below 400,000.
And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Dvbe_GGrasIHab6zg14veRbXK6LMev8Oo1R1EVbGU6yW7UgG9-Rk2uQc8i9T0nzy9FRACVlcVE_3FTpGtam7oyO1PVzKKY6t86suq3NlZDfy-YgfBtHJqwXuSq_qUTntxJCp/s320/WeeklyLongJan262012.jpg)
Weekly claims have been bouncing around lately - January is a period with large seasonal adjustments and that can lead to some large swings - but the 4-week average of weekly claims have been mostly trending down.