This article was originally written by Doug Short. From 2016-2022, it was improved upon and updated by Jill Mislinski. Starting in January 2023, AP Charts pages will be maintained by Jennifer Nash at Advisor Perspectives/VettaFi.
Initial jobless claims measures the number of individual who filed for unemployment insurance for the first time following job loss during the past week. This morning's seasonally adjusted 192,000 new claims, down 20,000 from the previous week's revised figure, came in below the Investing.com forecast of 205,000.
Here is the opening statement from the Department of Labor:
In the week ending March 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 192,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 211,000 to 212,000. The 4-week moving average was 196,500, a decrease of 750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 197,000 to 197,250.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent for the week ending March 4, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 4 was 1,684,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 5,000 from 1,718,000 to 1,713,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,676,500, a decrease of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 1,250 from 1,679,500 to 1,678,250.
