Jobless claims: Another 184,000 Americans filed new claims last week

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Yahoo! Finance

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims: Another 184,000 Americans filed new claims last week

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Thu, April 21, 2022, 8:30 AM · 3 min read

Weekly unemployment claims held near their lowest levels since the 1960s, with a strong labor market and improving levels of unemployment remaining a bright spot in the U.S. economy.

The Labor Department released its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here were the main metrics from the print, compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

-- Initial jobless claims, week ended April 16: 184,000 vs. 180,000 expected, 185,000 during prior week

-- Continuing claims, week ended April 9: 1.417 million vs. 1.459 million expected, 1.475 million during prior week

First-time filings for unemployment benefits remained below 200,000 for a ninth consecutive week. As of last week, the four-week moving average for new jobless claims, which smooths out volatility in the weekly data, stood at just 177,250. Throughout 2019 before the pandemic, new claims averaged about 218,000 per week. And last month, jobless claims reached their lowest level since 1968 at 166,000.

Continuing claims, which tally the number of Americans collecting benefits for multiple weeks, have also declined sharply to reach multi-decade lows. These came in below 1.5 million for a back-to-back week to reach their lowest level since 1970.

The weekly jobless claims data have served as an ongoing reminder of the tightness in the current labor market. Job openings have far outpaced new hires — a phenomenon many companies this quarterly earnings season have been quick to acknowledge.

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Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-april-16-2022-182808572.html

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She'll be updating this for a while.

Here's the placeholder for the April 21, 2022, initial claims report:

Yahoo Finance

Jobless claims preview: Another 180,000 Americans likely filed new claims

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/weekly-jobless-claims-week-ended-april-16-2022-182808572.html

Emily McCormick · Reporter
Wed, April 20, 2022, 2:28 PM

Weekly unemployment claims are expected to hold near their lowest levels since the 1960s, with a strong labor market and improving levels of unemployment remaining a bright spot in the U.S. economy.

The Labor Department is set to release its latest weekly jobless claims report Thursday at 8:30 a.m. ET. Here are the main metrics expected from the print compared to consensus estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

Initial jobless claims, week ended April 16: 180,000 expected, 185,000 during prior week

Continuing claims, week ended April 9: 1.459 million expected, 1.475 million during prior week

First-time filings for unemployment benefits are expected to hold below 200,000 for a ninth consecutive week. As of early April, the four-week moving average for new jobless claims, which smooths out volatility in the weekly data, stood at just 172,250. Throughout 2019 before the pandemic, new claims averaged about 218,000 per week. And last month, jobless claims reached their lowest level since 1968 at 166,000.

Continuing claims, which tally the number of Americans collecting benefits for multiple weeks, have also declined sharply to reach multi-decade lows. These came in below 1.5 million for the first time since 1970 in last week's report.

The weekly jobless claims data have served as an ongoing reminder of the tightness in the current labor market. Job openings have far outpaced new hires -- a phenomenon many companies this quarterly earnings season have been quick to acknowledge.

"Transportation and labor markets remain tight," Andre Schulten, Procter & Gamble chief financial officer, said during the company's earnings call Wednesday morning. "Labor availability is certainly a stretch, not for P&G directly, but more for our supplier base."

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[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. From the source:

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

News Release

Connect with DOL at
https://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL
8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, April 21, 2022

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 184,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 185,000 to 186,000. The 4-week moving average was 177,250, an increase of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 500 from 172,250 to 172,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.0 percent for the week ending April 9, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 9 was 1,417,000, a decrease of 58,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 1,475,000. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since February 21, 1970 when it was 1,412,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,481,750, a decrease of 31,250 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 1970 when it was 1,456,750. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,500 from 1,511,500 to 1,513,000.

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UNADJUSTED DATA

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The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending April 2 was 1,622,094, a decrease of 88,031 from the previous week. There were 17,394,057 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2021.

{snip the rest of the ten-page news release, until the end}

Weekly Claims Archives
Weekly Claims Data

U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Department's Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at [phone] (voice) or [phone] (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor
Employment and Training Administration
Washington, D.C. 20210
Release Number: USDL 22-691-NAT

Program Contacts:
Kevin Stapleton: [phone]
Media Contact: [phone]

[FBaggins]

2. Continuing claims... came in below 1.5 million **for the first time since 1970**

Should get its own headlines

Fewest Americans collecting jobless aid since 1970
https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-economy-unemployment-629c9afb8baaaed5502b12573ff27822