Initial claims
Initial employment claims

The US initial jobless claims and continuing claims for the current week shows:

  • Initial jobless claims 260K versus 260K estimate
  • 4-week moving average of initial jobs claims increased to 247K from 232K last week.
  • Continuing claims 1.675M versus 1.635M last week.
  • 4 week moving average of continuing claims decreased to 1.651M vs 1.662M last week. The MA is the lowest since August 18. 1973.
  • Prior week 286K revised to 290K
  • The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 15 were in California (+805), Kentucky (+527), Puerto Rico (+473), Rhode Island (+464), and Virginia (+406),
  • The largest decreases were in New York (-13,854), Missouri (-7,098), Washington (-6,016), Michigan (-5,555), and Texas (-4,773).

Click here for the full report.

For what it's worth, the continuing claims data corresponds with the survey week by the BLS. Last week the initial claims corresponded with the survey week and showed a sharp rise due to omicron. The US jobs report released a week from Friday. Last month the nonfarm payroll came at 199K weaker than expectations.