The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits eased to 2.438 million in the week ended May 16th, the lowest level since the coronavirus crisis began more than two months ago. Still, filings came in slightly above market expectations of 2.4 million and lifted the total reported since March 21st to 38.6 million. On a non seasonally adjusted basis, the biggest increases in jobless claims were reported in California, New York, Florida, Georgia, Washington and Texas. The 4-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, eased for a fourth straight week to 3.042 million, while continuing jobless claims hit a new record of 25 million in the week ended May 9th.

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States averaged 363.08 Thousand from 1967 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 6867 Thousand in March of 2020 and a record low of 162 Thousand in November of 1968. This page provides the latest reported value for - United States Initial Jobless Claims - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news. United States Initial Jobless Claims - data, historical chart, forecasts and calendar of releases - was last updated on May of 2020. source: U.S. Department of Labor

Initial Jobless Claims in the United States is expected to be 220.00 Thousand by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Initial Jobless Claims in the United States to stand at 237.91 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the United States Initial Jobless Claims is projected to trend around 267.12 Thousand in 2021, according to our econometric models.

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United States Initial Jobless Claims

Actual Previous Highest Lowest Dates Unit Frequency
2438.00 2687.00 6867.00 162.00 1967 - 2020 Thousand Weekly
Volume, SA


Calendar GMT Actual Previous Consensus TEForecast
2020-04-30 12:30 PM 25/Apr 3839K 4442K 3500K 3680K
2020-05-07 12:30 PM 02/May 3169K 3846K 3000K 3210K
2020-05-14 12:30 PM 09/May 2981K 3176K 2500K 2450K
2020-05-21 12:30 PM 16/May 2438K 2687K 2400K 2290K
2020-05-28 12:30 PM 23/May 2438K 2100K 2120K
2020-06-04 12:30 PM 30/May 1790K
2020-06-11 12:30 PM 06/Jun
2020-06-18 12:30 PM 13/Jun
Go to our Calendar for more events. Or learn more about the Calendar API for direct access.


News Stream
US Initial Jobless Claims Top 2.4M
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits eased to 2.438 million in the week ended May 16th, the lowest level since the coronavirus crisis began more than two months ago. Still, filings came in slightly above market expectations of 2.4 million and lifted the total reported since March 21st to 38.6 million. On a non seasonally adjusted basis, the biggest increases in jobless claims were reported in California, New York, Florida, Georgia, Washington and Texas. The 4-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, eased for a fourth straight week to 3.042 million, while continuing jobless claims hit a new record of 25 million in the week ended May 9th.
2020-05-21
Initial Claims in US Seen at 2.4 Million
2.4 million workers are expected to have filed unemployment claims during the week ended May 16th, bringing total claims to 38.9 million since March 21st when the pandemic started in the US. Yet, it would be again the smallest rise in initial claims since a record of 6.867 million in the week ended March 28th. Data for the prior week is expected to be revised down after Connecticut said it has misreported its figures. The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits came in at 2.981 million in the week ended May 9th, the lowest level since the coronavirus crisis began two months ago.
2020-05-21
US Jobless Claims Below 3M for 1st Time in 2 Months
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits was 2.981 million in the week ended May 9th, the lowest level since the coronavirus crisis began two months ago. Still, filings came in above market expectations of 2.5 million and lifted the total reported since March 21st to 36.5 million, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the working age population. The 4-week moving average, which removes week-to-week volatility, eased for a third straight week to 3.617 million, while continuing jobless claims hit a new record of 22.833 million in the week ended May 2nd.
2020-05-14
Initial Claims Expected to Edge Down to 2.5 Million
2.5 million workers are expected to have filed unemployment claims during the week ended May 9th. It would be the smallest rise in initial claims in 8 weeks, and compared to a record of 6.867 million in the week ended March 28th. It would bring the total of unemployed since the coronavirus pandemic started in mid-March to about 36 million, nearly a quarter of the working age population. The cumulative number far surpassed all of the jobs created since mid-2009, the end of the last recession. The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits was 3.169 in the week ended May 2nd, compared to a revised 3.846 million in the prior week and market expectations of 3 million.
2020-05-14

United States Initial Jobless Claims
Initial jobless claims have a big impact in financial markets because unlike continued claims data which measures the number of persons claiming unemployment benefits, Initial jobless claims measures new and emerging unemployment.