The Initial claims are steady and in the middle of the range
- Prior week 223K revised to 225K
- initial does claims.224K vs 225K estimate
- 4 week moving average of initial jobless claims 224K vs 228.75K last week. The 4 week MA is the same as the number for the week.
- Continuing claims 1.856M vs 1.888M estimate. Prior week revised to 1.881M from 1.892M.
- 4 week moving average of continuing claims 1.870M vs 1.868M last week
Note: This week’s release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims seasonal adjustment factors.
The seasonal adjustment factors used for the UI Weekly Claims data from 2020 forward, along with the resulting
seasonally adjusted values for initial claims and continuing claims, have been revised.
The four week moving average of the initial jobless claims is the same as the weekly number at 224K. That is also smacked dab in the middle of the range going back a year (see chart above). That range has been roughly between 200K and 250K. The current level at 224K is 1K away from the middle.
For the continuing claims, from a year ago the continuing claims are higher, but since September, the numbers have been steady between 1.84M and 1.91M (see chart below).