Initial Jobless Claims Four-Week Average Holds at Lowest Since 1969
- Initial jobless claims for the week ending November 7: 200,000 (estimate 195,000; previous 189,000; revised previous 191,000)
- Continuing claims for the week ending October 31: 1,697,000 (previous 1,718,000; revised previous 1,717,000).
After bottoming at 189,000 in mid-July — the lowest reading since 1969 — initial jobless claims have barely budged. In the week through November 7 they rose 9,000, the most since August 8, but very subdued historically, to 200,000, the highest in four weeks. That ends a three-week run below 200,000, leaving the count at 18 weeks below that mark since 1969 (the four-week run from September 12 through October 3 was the longest since 1969), with claims still near cycle lows at the bottom of the relatively narrow range that has held since November 2021.
The four-week average was unchanged at 195,250, matching the prior week’s upwardly revised level as the lowest since October 1969 (31,750 lower year-over-year).
Continuing claims (seasonally adjusted) in the week through October 31 (one week lagged) fell 20,000 to 1,697,000 (after a 1,000 downward revision to the prior week), just above the 1,695,000 two weeks earlier that was the lowest since April 2023. That leaves them towards the bottom of the roughly 1.70 million to 2.0 million range that has held since mid-2023 — historically low, though not as low as initial claims.
The four-week average of continuing claims fell 1,500 to 1,707,750, the lowest since October 3 when it matched the lowest since April 2023 (after a 250 downward revision to the prior week), and remains lower year-over-year for a 41st straight week (down 244,250) — the largest such gap since December 2022.
The 20-year pre-pandemic average for initial claims is 345,000 and continuing claims roughly 2.9 million.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor