Rising Weekly Unemployment Claims as Pandemic Surges, Taking Toll on Economy

In the week ending November 21, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 778,000, an increase of 30,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 6,000 from 742,000 to 748,000. The 4-week moving average was 748,500, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 1,500 from 742,000 to 743,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the week ending November 14, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 14 was 6,071,000, a decrease of 299,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 2,000 from 6,372,000 to 6,370,000. The 4-week moving average was 6,615,250, a decrease of 438,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 1,250 from 7,054,500 to 7,053,250.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 827,710 in the week ending November 21, an increase of 78,372 (or 10.5 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 48,360 (or 6.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 252,428 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. In addition, for the week ending November 21, 51 states reported 311,675 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.0 percent during the week ending November 14, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 5,911,965, a decrease of 167,617 (or -2.8 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 131,883 (or 2.2 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 1.1 percent and the volume was 1,545,007.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 7 was 20,452,223, an increase of 135,297 from the previous week. There were 1,487,844 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

During the week ending November 7, Extended Benefits were available in the following 36 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Washington, and West Virginia.

Initial claims for UI benefit s filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,436 in the week ending November 14, a decrease of 114 from the prior week. There were 754 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 145 from the preceding week.

There were 13,539 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending November 7, a decrease of 2 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 11,201, a decrease of 693 from the prior week.

During the week ending November 7, 50 states reported 9,147,753 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 51 states reported 4,509,284 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending November 7 were in California (7.9), Hawaii (7.1), Nevada (6.9), the Virgin Islands (6.9), Alaska (6.3), Massachusetts (6.1), Illinois (5.9), Georgia (5.8), District of Columbia (5.6), and New Mexico (5.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending November 14 were in Louisiana (+33,573), Massachusetts (+9,859), Texas (+5,216), Kentucky (+3,770), and Minnesota (+3,608), while the largest decreases were in Illinois (-20,581), Washington (-8,904), New Jersey (-7,990), Florida (-7,045), and Georgia (-4,201).