Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - 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, the 4-week average of seasonally adjusted jobless claims were 207,500 on 18 July 2026, compared to 214,750 on 11 July 2026. This constitutes a decrease of 3.38 percent.
Sample. The weekly time series plotted above has 3,104 observations. The span of time covered by the series is from January 1967 to July 2026.
History. Here's a peek at some simple statistics we calculated on the full sample: claims reached their minimum of 179,000 on 17 May 1969; they recorded their maximum of 5,288,250 on 18 April 2020; they had a mean value of 359,730.
Latest values
| Date | Value - Number of persons |
|---|---|
| 2026-07-04 | 219250.0 |
| 2026-07-11 | 214750.0 |
| 2026-07-18 | 207500.0 |
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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 |
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 | 3107 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-07-18 |
| Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3104 | 1967-01-28 | 2026-07-18 |
| Initial unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3107 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-07-18 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3106 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-07-11 |
| Continued unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3103 | 1967-01-28 | 2026-07-11 |
| Continued unemployment claims (not seasonally adjusted) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 3106 | 1967-01-07 | 2026-07-11 |
| Persons covered by unemployment insurance - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly | 2897 | 1971-01-02 | 2026-07-04 |