U.S. Jobless Claims Show Unexpected Rise from Last Week’s Pandemic Low

In the week ending July 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 419,000, an increase of 51,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 8,000 from 360,000 to 368,000. The 4–week moving average was 385,250, an increase of 750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 2,000 from 382,500 to 384,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent for the week ending July 10, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 10 was 3,236,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since March 21, 2020 when it was 3,094,000. The previous week’s level was revised up 24,000 from 3,241,000 to 3,265,000. The 4–week moving average was 3,338,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 21, 2020 when it was 2,071,750. The previous week’s average was revised up by 6,000 from 3,376,000 to 3,382,000.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 406,053 in the week ending July 17, an increase of 14,479 (or 3.7 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 36,391 (or -9.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 1,373,239 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending July 17, 47 states reported 110,257 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending July 10, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,249,777, an increase of 106,073 (or 3.4 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 134,890 (or 4.3 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 11.2 percent and the volume was 16,396,735.

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending July 3 was 12,573,833, a decrease of 1,262,815 from the previous week. There were 32,935,470 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

During the week ending July 3, Extended Benefits were available in the following 11 states: Alaska, California,
Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Texas .

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 873 in the week ending July 10, a decrease of 8 from the prior week. There were 571 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 6 from the preceding week.

There were 9,887 continued weeks claimed filed by former Federal civilian employees the week ending July 3, a decrease of 946 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 5,903, a decrease of 657 from the prior week.

During the week ending July 3, 48 states reported 5,133,938 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 48 states reported 4,134,716 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits. The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 3 were in Virgin Islands (4.8), Puerto Rico (4.7), Nevada (4.1), Rhode Island (3.9), California (3.8), Illinois (3.7), New Jersey (3.7), New York (3.6), Connecticut (3.5), District of Columbia (3.1), and Pennsylvania (3.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 10 were in Texas (+10,091), New York (+8,190),
Pennsylvania (+4,319), Tennessee (+3,061), and Missouri (+1,793), while the largest decreases were in Georgia (–5,286), Rhode Island (–4,807), Puerto Rico (–3,934), Kentucky (–3,771), and Maryland (–2,497).