Weekly Jobless Claims Hover Above 800,000, Virus Continues Toll on Employment

U.S. Department of Labor

In the week ending September 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 884,000, unchanged from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 881,000 to 884,000. The 4-week moving average was 970,750, a decrease of 21,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 750 from 991,750 to 992,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 9.2 percent for the week ending August 29, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending August 29 was 13,385,000, an increase of 93,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up 38,000 from 13,254,000 to 13,292,000. The 4-week moving average was 13,982,000, a decrease of 523,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 9,500 from 14,496,250 to 14,505,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 857,148 in the week ending September 5, an increase of 20,140 (or 2.4 percent) from the previous week. There were 160,342 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. In addition, for the week ending September 5, 48 states reported 838,916 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 9.0 percent during the week ending August 29, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 13,197,059, an increase of 54,472 (or 0.4 percent) from the preceding week. A year earlier the rate was 1.0 percent and the volume was 1,476,199.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 22 was 29,605,064, an increase of 380,379 from the previous week. There were 1,591,456 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

During the week ending August 22, 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, Utah, Vermont, the Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Initial claims for UI benefit s filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,038 in the week ending August 29, a decrease of 13 from the prior week. There were 914 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 112 from the preceding week.

There were 13,641 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending August 22, a decrease of 524 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 13,013, a decrease of 671 from the prior week.

the week ending August 22, 48 states reported 14,591,621 individuals claiming Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits and 49 states reported 1,422,483 individuals claiming Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 22 were in Hawaii (20.3), Puerto Rico (16.7), Nevada (16.0), New York (14.9), California (14.8), Connecticut (14.7), Louisiana (13.2), t he Virgin Islands (12.6), Georgia (12.2), and District of Columbia (11.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 29 were in California (+22,647), Texas (+4,521), Louisiana (+3,662), Tennessee (+1,288), and Missouri (+1,226), while the largest decreases were in Florida (-6,057), Georgia (-5,485), Pennsylvania (-2,627), Wisconsin (-1,422), and Michigan (-1,159).

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