Freely Downloadable Data Sets Updated Daily

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 stood at 192,296 on 18 July 2026, compared to 246,014 on 11 July 2026. This marks a reduction of 21.84 percent.

Sample. There are 3,107 records overall in the weekly time series presented in the plot above. The series covers the time period extending from January 1967 to July 2026.

History. Here's a snapshot of some simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: claims averaged 359,031; they hit a trough of 133,000 on 6 September 1969; they achieved a maximum of 6,161,268 on 4 April 2020.

Latest values

Date Value - Number of persons
2026-07-04 226177.0
2026-07-11 246014.0
2026-07-18 192296.0

Hint. One of the advantages of our web site is that we provide complete metadata. Find it below to learn more about the attributes of the time series that you use in your research.

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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