Weekly Unemployment Claims: Up 1K - Thursday, May 12

Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor:

In the week ending May 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 203,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 200,000 to 202,000. The 4 week moving average was 192,750, an increase of 4,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week' average was revised up by 500 from 188,000 to 188,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.0 percent for the week ending April 30, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment s during the week ending April 30 was 1,343,000, a decrease of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level. This is the lowest level for insured unemployment since January 3, 1970 when it was 1,332,000. The previous week's level was re vised up 3,000 from 1,384,000 to 1,387,000. The 4week moving average was 1,385,000, a decrease of 32,750 from the previous week's revised average. This is the lowest level for this average since January 31, 1970 when it was 1,374,250. The previous week's average was revised up by 750 from 1,417,000 to 1,417,750. [See full report]

This morning's seasonally adjusted 203K new claims, up 1K from the previous week's revised figure, was above the Investing.com forecast of 195K.

Here is a close look at the data over the decade (with a callout for the past year), which gives a clearer sense of the overall trend.

As we can see, there's a good bit of volatility in this indicator, which is why the 4-week moving average (the highlighted number) is a more useful number than the weekly data. Here is the complete data series.

Here's a copy of the above chart, but zoomed in, so the COVID spike isn't as prominent. We'll be adding a few more of these "zoomed in" looks in the coming weeks.

The headline Unemployment Insurance data is seasonally adjusted. What does the non-seasonally adjusted data look like? See the chart below, which clearly shows the extreme volatility of the non-adjusted data (the red dots). The 4-week MA gives an indication of the recurring pattern of seasonal change (note, for example, those regular January spikes).

Because of the extreme volatility of the non-adjusted weekly data, we can add a 52-week moving average to give a better sense of the secular trends. The chart below also has a linear regression through the data.

Here's a look at a sample of year's claims going back to 2009.

For an analysis of unemployment claims as a percent of the labor force, see this regularly updated piece The Civilian Labor Force, Unemployment Claims and the Business Cycle. Here is a snapshot from that analysis.