Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly
This series is part of the dataset: Unemployment claims
Download Full Dataset (.xlsx)Latest updates. In the United States, the 4-week average of seasonally adjusted jobless claims stood at 237,500 on 20 September 2025, versus 240,250 on 13 September 2025. This marks a decrease of 1.14 percent.
Sample. There are 3,061 observations in the weekly series presented in the plot above. The span of time covered by the series extends from January 1967 to September 2025.
History. Here's a glimpse of some descriptive statistics we computed on the whole sample: claims recorded their highest level of 5,288,250 on 18 April 2020; they hit a trough of 179,000 on 17 May 1969; they had a mean of 361,750.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Number of persons |
|---|---|
| 2025-09-06 | 240,750 |
| 2025-09-13 | 240,250 |
| 2025-09-20 | 237,500 |
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Series Metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Description | Initial unemployment claims (jobless claims) |
| Country | United States |
| Economic concept | Flow |
| Data type | Quantity |
| Deflation method | Not applicable |
| Seasonally adjusted | Yes |
| Rescaling | No |
| Frequency | Weekly |
| Unit | Number of persons |
| Source | U.S. Department of Labor - Employment and Training Administration |
| Source type | Federal Administration |
| Data licence | Unknown |
| Measure type | Level , 4-week average |
Series in the same data set
Discover the other time series included in this data set.
Unemployment claims
| Series Name | Observations | Start Date | End Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3064 | 1967-01-07 | 2025-09-20 |
| Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3061 | 1967-01-28 | 2025-09-20 |
| Initial unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3064 | 1967-01-07 | 2025-09-20 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3063 | 1967-01-07 | 2025-09-13 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3060 | 1967-01-28 | 2025-09-13 |
| Continued unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3063 | 1967-01-07 | 2025-09-13 |
| Persons covered by unemployment insurance - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 2853 | 1971-01-02 | 2025-08-30 |