Weekly Jobless Claims Exceed 1 Million for 20th Straight Week

In the week ending August 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claimswas 1,186,000, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 1,000 from 1,434,000 to 1,435,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,337,750, a decrease of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 250 from 1,368,500 to 1,368,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment ratewas 11.0 percent for the week ending July 25, a decrease of 0.6 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemploymentduring the week ending July 25 was 16,107,000, a decrease of 844,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 67,000 from 17,018,000 to 16,951,000. The 4-week moving average was 16,628,250, a decrease of 413,250 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 16,750 from 17,058,250 to 17,041,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 984,192 in the week ending August 1, a decrease of 222,852 (or -18.5 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 15,788 (or -1.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 179,879 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. In addition, for the week ending August 1, 51 states reported 655,707 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 10.8 percent during the week ending July 25, a decrease of 0.7 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 15,849,488, a decrease of 965,711 (or -5.7 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 135,606 (or -0.8 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 1.2 percent and the volume was 1,665,287.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending July 18 was 31,308,678, an increase of 492,816 from the previous week. There were 1,707,267 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

During the week ending July 18, Extended Benefits were available in the following 52 states: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Initial claims for UI benefit s filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,403 in the week ending July 25, an increase of 10 from the prior week.

There were 1,029 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 101 from the preceding week. There were 16,170 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 18, an increase of 1,745 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 16,271, an increase of 2,564 from the prior week.

During the week ending Jul 18, 49 states reported 12,956,478 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistancebenefits and 48 states reported 1,144,429 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 18 were in Nevada (24.9), Puerto Rico (23.5), Hawaii (21.0), California (18.1), Louisiana (17.2), New York (16.3), Connecticut (15.2), Georgia (14.5), Massachusetts (14.3), and Michigan (13.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 25 were in Virginia (+5,020), Nevada (+2,842), Missouri (+2,606), Indiana (+2,218), and New Jersey (+2,141), while the largest decreases were in California (-44,941), Georgia (-37,329), Florida (-17,514), Louisiana (-13,568), and Texas (-11,104).