U.S. Jobless Claims Continue to Fall, Lowest since Beginning of Pandemic

In the week ending May 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claimswas 385,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised level. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000. The previous week’s level was revised down by 1,000 from 406,000 to 405,000. The 4–week moving average was 428,000, a decrease of 30,500 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020 when it was 225,500. The previous week’s average was revised down by 250 from 458,750 to 458,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment ratewas 2.7 percent for the week ending May 22, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. Theadvance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemploymentduring the week ending May 22 was 3,771,000, an increase of 169,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 40,000 from 3,642,000 to 3,602,000. The 4–week moving average was 3,687,750, an increase of 22,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 10,000 from 3,675,000 to 3,665,000.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 425,450 in the week ending May 29, an increase of 6,014 (or 1.4 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 25,593 (or 6.1 percent) from the previous week. There were 1,611,720 initial claims in the comparable week in 2020. In addition, for the week ending May 29, 51 states reported 76,098 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent during the week ending May 22, unchanged from the prior week. Theadvance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,504,163, an increase of 22,860 (or 0.7 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 146,538 (or –4.2 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 13.1 percent and the volume was 19,118,945.

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending May 15 was 15,435,982, a decrease of 366,178 from the previous week. There were 30,770,615 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

During the week ending May 15, Extended Benefits were available in the following 13 states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 840 in the week ending May 22, an increase of 6 from the prior week. There were 501 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 105 from the preceding week.

There were 12,227 continued weeks claimed filed by former Federal civilian employees the week ending May 15, a decrease of 1,226 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 6,998, a decrease of 302 from the prior week.

During the week ending May 15, 51 states reported 6,368,301 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 51 states reported 5,293,842 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 15 were in Nevada (5.5), Rhode Island (4.6), Puerto Rico (4.5), Connecticut (4.3), Alaska (4.2), New York (3.8), Pennsylvania (3.8), Illinois (3.6), California (3.5), and District of Columbia (3.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 22 were in Delaware (+2,187), Illinois (+1,688), Pennsylvania (+1,347), California (+773), and Rhode Island (+644), while the largest decreases were in Washington(–8,020), New Jersey (–5,290), Florida (–4,679), Ohio (–3,844), and Michigan (–2,605).