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Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly

This series is part of the dataset: Unemployment claims

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Latest updates. In the United States, the 4-week average of seasonally adjusted jobless claims were 237,500 on 20 September 2025, versus 240,250 on 13 September 2025. This marks a reduction of 1.14 percent.

Sample. There are 3,061 observations in the weekly time series shown in the figure above. The series covers the time period extending from January 1967 to September 2025.

History. Here are a few descriptive statistics computed on the full sample: claims registered a minimum of 179,000 on 17 May 1969; they hit a peak of 5,288,250 on 18 April 2020; they had a mean value of 361,750.

Latest values

Date Value - Number of persons
2025-09-06 240750.0
2025-09-13 240250.0
2025-09-20 237500.0

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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