U.S. Unemployment Claims Fall to a Pandemic Low of 498K

in the week ending May 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 498,000, a decrease of 92,000 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 up by 37,000 from 553,000 to 590,000. The 4–week moving average was 560,000, a decrease of 61,000 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 up by 9,250 from 611,750 to 621,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending April 24, unchanged from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 24 was 3,690,000, an increase of 37,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 7,000 from 3,660,000 to 3,653,000. The 4–week moving average was 3,675,750, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since March 28, 2020 when it was 3,611,750. The previous week’s average was revised down by 1,500 from 3,684,000 to 3,682,500.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 504,670 in the week ending May 1, a decrease of 107,390 (or –17.5 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 15,508 (or –2.5 percent) from the previous week. There were 2,793,245 initial claims in the comparable week in2020. In addition, for the week ending May 1, 52 states reported 101,214 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent during the week ending April 24, unchanged from the prior week.The advance unadjusted level of insured unemployment in state programs totaled 3,786,096, an increase of 2,533 (or 0.1 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 34,614 (or –0.9 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 14.9 percent and the volume was 21,754,246.

The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending April 17 was 16,157,024, a decrease of 404,509 from the previous week. There were 17,847,707 weekly claims filed for benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2020.

During the week ending April 17, Extended Benefits were available in the following 15 states: Alaska, California,Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, and the Virgin Islands.

Initial claims for UI benefit s filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 974 in the week ending April 24, a decrease of 129 from the prior week. There were 571 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 15 fr om the preceding week.

There were 14,681 continued weeks claimed filed by former Federal civilian employees the week ending April 17, a decrease of 708 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 7,602, a decrease of 207 from the prior week.

During the week ending April 17, 51 states reported 6,862,705 continued weekly claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 51 states reported 4,972,507 continued claims for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 17 were in Nevada (6.2), Connecticut (5.2), the Virgin Islands (4.9), Alaska (4.7), New York (4.3), Illinois (4.1), Pennsylvania (4.1), Vermont (4.1), Rhode Island (4.0), and District of Columbia (3.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 24 were in Virginia (+23,605), Florida (+9,179), Michigan (+8,234), California (+5,731), and Oregon (+4,064), while the largest decreases were in Texas (–12,673), Wisconsin (–7,504), Tennessee (–4,063), Georgia (–3,617), and Iowa (–3,026).