by Calculated Risk on 5/10/2012 08:30:00 AM
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims at 367,000
The DOL reports:
In the week ending May 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 367,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 368,000. The 4-week moving average was 379,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 384,250.The previous week was revised up from 365,000 to 368,000.
The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWyb_QoBR9NMg9B8e2gZCMMzwiSc7IrKu6GUSMWr_Fqg_1W5mERL0DjSQtI79yJ4LfuyqvftIK4_fE30sarK1OZfQtCzaeFbY4wL2xkg5EY35ZdxHcpASEcBGHAbmoL9X2qxma/s320/WeeklyClaimsMay102012.jpg)
The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 379,000.
This decline in the 4-week moving average followed for four consecutive increases.
And here is a long term graph of weekly claims:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-gNV1bVZBTN_5E2Sij-iOFSbk6d_F5CDiQ6xiIoBVemqIix93Z7BpaMg8f-lckyHRW1CgT3D8iWG4PIupmV6cg1lbPssHFjm0KPtRbipzYziFSFz7HK7Uyugbb6OshFPB4ga/s320/WeeklyClaimsLongMay102012.jpg)
This was close to the consensus of 366,000. This is two consecutive weeks with initial unemployment claims in the 360s, after averaging close to 390,000 over the previous 3 weeks.