Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims decline to 350,000

The DOL reports:

In the week ending October 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 350,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 362,000. The 4-week moving average was 348,250, an increase of 10,750 from the previous week's revised average of 337,500.

The previous week was revised up from 358,000.

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 348,250 - the highest level since July.

Some of this recent increase in the four-week average was related to the government shutdown and some related to processing issues in California.