The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised value to 230,000 on the week ending August 19th, below market expectations of 240,000. Additionally, continuing claims fell by 9,000 from the prior week’s downwardly revised value to 1,702,000 on the week ending August 12th, below market estimates of 1,708,000 and close to 6-month lows from July to suggest that job seekers are able to find employment. The results consolidated evidence that the US labor market remains at historically tight levels, adding leeway for the Federal Reserve to extend its hawkish momentum to curb inflation. The four-week moving average for initial claims, which removes week-to-week volatility, edged 2,250 higher to 236,750. Non-seasonally adjusted claims fell by 15,446 to 198,357 as considerable declines in Ohio (-5,899), New Jersey (-1,308), and Washington (-1,050) offset a surge in Hawaii (3,679), as wildfire catastrophes destroyed businesses. source: U.S. Department of Labor

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States averaged 366.71 Thousand from 1967 until 2023, reaching an all time high of 6137.00 Thousand in April of 2020 and a record low of 162.00 Thousand in November of 1968. This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Initial Jobless Claims - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. United States Initial Jobless Claims - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on August of 2023.

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States is expected to be 280.00 Thousand by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations.

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United States Initial Jobless Claims



Calendar GMT Reference Actual Previous Consensus TEForecast
2023-08-17 12:30 PM Aug/12 239K 250K 240K 241.0K
2023-08-24 12:30 PM Aug/19 230K 240K 240K 242.0K
2023-08-31 12:30 PM Aug/26 230K 235K 236.0K


Related Last Previous Unit Reference
Initial Jobless Claims 230.00 240.00 Thousand Aug 2023
Continuing Jobless Claims 1702.00 1711.00 Thousand Aug 2023
Productivity 114.02 112.98 points Jun 2023
Labour Costs 128.77 128.24 points Jun 2023
Jobless Claims 4-week Average 236.75 234.50 Thousand Aug 2023
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Claims 0.90 1.55 Thousand Dec 2021

United States Initial Jobless Claims
Initial jobless claims have a big impact in financial markets because unlike continued claims data which measures the number of persons claiming unemployment benefits, Initial jobless claims measures new and emerging unemployment.
Actual Previous Highest Lowest Dates Unit Frequency
230.00 240.00 6137.00 162.00 1967 - 2023 Thousand Weekly
Volume, SA

News Stream
US Initial Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell by 10,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised value to 230,000 on the week ending August 19th, below market expectations of 240,000. Additionally, continuing claims fell by 9,000 from the prior week’s downwardly revised value to 1,702,000 on the week ending August 12th, below market estimates of 1,708,000 and close to 6-month lows from July to suggest that job seekers are able to find employment. The results consolidated evidence that the US labor market remains at historically tight levels, adding leeway for the Federal Reserve to extend its hawkish momentum to curb inflation. The four-week moving average for initial claims, which removes week-to-week volatility, edged 2,250 higher to 236,750. Non-seasonally adjusted claims fell by 15,446 to 198,357 as considerable declines in Ohio (-5,899), New Jersey (-1,308), and Washington (-1,050) offset a surge in Hawaii (3,679), as wildfire catastrophes destroyed businesses.
2023-08-24
US Initial Jobless Claims Ease as Expected
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell by 11,000 from the prior week’s upwardly revised seven-week high to 239,000 on the week ending August 12th, in line with expectations of 240,000. Despite remaining low at historical standards, the figure remained sharply above lows from the second half of July and suggested that the US labor market is starting to soften from stubbornly tight levels since the start of the year, loosely aligning with recent bets that the Federal Reserve may refrain from tightening monetary policy further this year. In the meantime, continuing claims rose by 32,000 to 1,716,000 on the first week of August, above market expiations of 1,700,000, to reflect some added difficulty for jobseekers to find available employment. The four-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,750 to 234,250 by August 12th. Non-seasonally adjusted claims fell by 2,750, as a sharp decrease in California (-3,519).
2023-08-17
US Jobless Claims Rise to 1-Month High
The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits jumped by 21,000 from the prior week to 248,000 on the week ending August 5th, the highest in one month, sharply above expectations of 230,000. Despite remaining at a historically low level, the figure suggested that the US labor market is starting to soften from stubbornly tight levels since the start of the year, loosely aligning with recent bets that the Federal Reserve may refrain from tightening monetary policy further this year. On the other hand, continuing claims fell by 26,000 to 1,674,000 in the last week of July, surprising markets that expected an 18,000 increase, to suggest that unemployed individuals still have relative ease in finding a job. The four-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,750 to 231,000 by August 5th. Non-seasonally adjusted initial claims rose by 20,032 to 225,581, amid sharp increases in Ohio (+5,246), Texas (+2,169), and California (+2,913).
2023-08-10