United States Initial Jobless Claims

The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits increased by 2 thousand to 216 thousand in the week ending November 10 from the previous week's unrevised level of 214 thousand while markets had expected a drop to 212 thousand. However, the Veterans Day holiday was observed on Monday which could have influenced the data. Claims for North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence while in Florida and Georgia they were impacted by Hurricane Michael. According to unadjusted data, the biggest rises in claims were seen in California (+3,735), New York (+3,682), New Jersey (+2,801) and Minnesota (+2,154) while the largest declines were registered in Michigan (-3,913), North Carolina (-1,670) and Texas (-1,246). New applications for US unemployment aid also went up in Georgia (+807) but they fell in Florida (-337). Initial Jobless Claims in the United States averaged 353.76 Thousand from 1967 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 695 Thousand in October of 1982 and a record low of 162 Thousand in November of 1968.

1Y 5Y 10Y MAX

width

height

Trading Economics members can view, download and compare data from nearly 200 countries, including more than 20 million economic indicators, exchange rates, government bond yields, stock indexes and commodity prices.

Learn More Questions? Contact us Already a Member? Login

The Trading Economics Application Programming Interface (API) provides direct access to our data. It allows API clients to download millions of rows of historical data, to query our real-time economic calendar, subscribe to updates and receive quotes for currencies, commodities, stocks and bonds.

API Features Documentation Interested? Click here to contact us

US Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Rise to 216K

The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits rose by 2 thousand to 216 thousand in the week ending November 10 from the previous week's unrevised level of 214 thousand while markets had expected a drop to 212 thousand. However, the Veterans Day holiday was observed on Monday which could have influenced the data. Claims for North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence while in Florida and Georgia they were impacted by Hurricane Michael.

The 4-week moving average was 215,250, an increase of 1,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 213,750.

According to unadjusted data, the biggest rises in claims were seen in California (+3,735), New York (+3,682), New Jersey (+2,801) and Minnesota (+2,154) while the largest declines were registered in Michigan (-3,913), North Carolina (-1,670) and Texas (-1,246). New applications for US unemployment aid also went up in Georgia (+807) but they fell in Florida (-337).

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent for the week ending November 3, 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 November 3 was 1,676,000, an increase of 46,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 7,000 from 1,623,000 to 1,630,000. Figures came above market forecasts of 1,630,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,643,750, an increase of 8,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 1,750 from 1,633,250 to 1,635,000.

DOL | Luisa Carvalho | luisa.carvalho@tradingeconomics.com
11/15/2018 2:04:46 PM

Recent Releases

US Jobless Claims Drop to 214K in Latest Week
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits dropped by 1 thousand to 214 thousand in the week ending November 3 from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 215 thousand, matching market expectations. Claims for North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence while in Florida and Georgia they were impacted by Hurricane Michael.
Published on 2018-11-08

US Jobless Claims Fall Less than Expected
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits decreased by 2 thousand to 214 thousand in the week ending October 27 from the previous week’s upwardly revised 216 thousand and compared with market expectations of 213 thousand. Claims for North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence, while for Florida and Georgia were impacted by Hurricane Michael.
Published on 2018-11-01

US Jobless Claims Rise Slightly More than Expected
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits increased by 5 thousand to 215 thousand in the week ending October 20 from the previous week's unrevised level of 210 thousand. Figures came slightly above market expectations of 214 thousand. Claims for South and North Carolina continued to be affected by Hurricane Florence while in Florida and Georgia they were impacted by Hurricane Michael.
Published on 2018-10-25

US Jobless Claims Fall More than Expected
The number of Americans filling for unemployment benefits decreased by 5 thousand to 210 thousand in the week ended October 13th from the previous week's upwardly revised level of 215 thousand. Figures came below market expectations of 212 thousand. Claims for South and North Carolina continue to be affected by the effects of Hurricane Florence while in Florida they were impacted by Hurricane Michael.
Published on 2018-10-18

Calendar	GMT		Actual	Previous	Consensus	TEForecast
2018-11-01	12:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims	214K	216K	213K	214K
2018-11-08	01:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims	214K	215K	214K	213K
2018-11-15	01:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims	216K	214K	212K	215K
2018-11-21	01:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims		216K	215K	214K
2018-11-29	01:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims				214K
2018-12-06	01:30 PM	Initial Jobless Claims				214K

United States Labour	Last	Previous	Highest	Lowest	Unit
Unemployment Rate	3.70	3.70	10.80	2.50	percent	[+]
Non Farm Payrolls	250.00	118.00	1115.00	-834.00	Thousand	[+]
Nonfarm Payrolls Private	246.00	121.00	1089.00	-821.00	Thousand	[+]
Government Payrolls	4.00	-3.00	427.00	-260.00	Thousand	[+]
Manufacturing Payrolls	32.00	18.00	572.00	-519.00	Thousand	[+]
Initial Jobless Claims	216.00	214.00	695.00	162.00	Thousand	[+]
Continuing Jobless Claims	1676.00	1630.00	6635.00	988.00	Thousand	[+]
ADP Employment Change	227.00	218.00	384.00	-836.00	Thousand	[+]
Employed Persons	156562.00	155962.00	156562.00	57635.00	Thousand	[+]
Unemployed Persons	6075.00	5964.00	15352.00	1596.00	Thousand	[+]
Average Hourly Earnings	0.20	0.30	0.60	-0.20	percent	[+]
Average Weekly Hours	34.50	34.50	34.60	33.70	Hours	[+]
Labor Force Participation Rate	62.90	62.70	67.30	58.10	percent	[+]
Long Term Unemployment Rate	0.84	0.85	2.80	0.74	percent	[+]
Youth Unemployment Rate	8.30	8.50	19.50	7.80	percent	[+]
Labour Costs	109.66	109.33	109.66	17.00	Index Points	[+]
Productivity	105.67	105.10	105.67	26.03	Index Points	[+]
Job Vacancies	7070.00	7291.00	7313.00	2132.00	Thousand	[+]
Job Offers	7009.00	7293.00	7293.00	2196.00	Thousand	[+]
Challenger Job Cuts	75644.00	55285.00	248475.00	15100.00	Persons	[+]
Wages	22.89	22.82	22.89	2.50	USD/Hour	[+]
Wage Growth	4.79	4.66	13.78	-5.88	percent	[+]
Wages in Manufacturing	21.68	21.62	21.68	1.27	USD/Hour	[+]
Minimum Wages	7.25	7.25	7.25	0.25	USD/Hour	[+]
Employment Cost Index	0.80	0.60	1.60	0.20	percent	[+]
Population	325.72	323.41	325.72	76.09	Million	[+]
Retirement Age Women	66.00	66.00	66.00	66.00		[+]
Retirement Age Men	66.00	66.00	66.00	66.00		[+]
Employment Rate	60.60	60.40	64.70	55.00	percent	[+]
Full Time Employment	129212.00	128894.00	129212.00	64640.00	Thousand	[+]
Part Time Employment	27297.00	27055.00	28134.00	10086.00	Thousand	[+]
Living Wage Family	2380.00	2270.00	2380.00	2160.00	USD/Month	[+]
Living Wage Individual	1660.00	1560.00	1660.00	1450.00	USD/Month	[+]
Wages High Skilled	4520.00	4330.00	4950.00	4330.00	USD/Month	[+]
Wages Low Skilled	1960.00	1760.00	2340.00	1760.00	USD/Month	[+]

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. 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 - actual data, historical chart and calendar of releases - was last updated on November of 2018.