Initial unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - 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, seasonally unadjusted jobless claims were 231,181 on 24 January 2026, versus 272,436 on 17 January. This constitutes a decrease of 15.14 percent.
Sample. There are 3,082 records in the weekly time series presented in the chart above. The series covers the span of time going from January 1967 to January 2026.
History. Here are some statistics computed on the full sample: claims hit a trough of 133,000 on 6 September 1969; they reached their maximum of 6,161,268 on 4 April 2020; they had a mean value of 360,269.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Number of persons |
|---|---|
| 2026-01-10 | 330963.0 |
| 2026-01-17 | 272436.0 |
| 2026-01-24 | 231181.0 |
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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 | No |
| 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 |
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 | 3082 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-01-24 |
| Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3079 | 1967-01-28 | 2026-01-24 |
| Initial unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3082 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-01-24 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3081 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-01-17 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3078 | 1967-01-28 | 2026-01-17 |
| Continued unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3081 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-01-17 |
| Persons covered by unemployment insurance - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 2871 | 1971-01-02 | 2026-01-03 |