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Initial unemployment claims (seasonally adjusted; 4-week average) - United States - Department of Labor - Weekly

This series is part of the dataset: Unemployment claims

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Latest updates. In the United States, the 4-week average of seasonally adjusted jobless claims were 210,750 on 14 March 2026, compared to 211,500 on 7 March 2026. This constitutes a reduction of 0.35 percent.

Sample. This weekly time series has 3,086 records. The period covered by the series is from January 1967 to March 2026.

History. Here’s a quick look at some descriptive statistics computed on the whole sample: claims recorded a minimum of 179,000 on 17 May 1969; they reached their maximum of 5,288,250 on 18 April 2020; they averaged 360,310.

Latest values

Date Value - Number of persons
2026-02-28 215750.0
2026-03-07 211500.0
2026-03-14 210750.0

Hint. A benefit of using FetchSeries is that we publish complete metadata. Find it below to gain insights on the attributes of the time series that you use in your work.

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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