Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims increase to 360,000

The DOL reports:

In the week ending July 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 360,000, an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 344,000. The 4-week moving average was 351,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average of 345,750.

The previous week was revised up from 343,000.

The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.

Click on graph for larger image.


The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased to 351,750.

The 4-week average has mostly moved sideways over the last few months.  Claims were above the 337,000 consensus forecast, but I wouldn't read too much into this one report since this was a holiday week and data in July can be impacted by the timing of auto plant shutdowns.