by Calculated Risk on 2/12/2009 08:31:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending Feb. 7, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 623,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 631,000. The 4-week moving average was 607,500, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week's revised average of 583,500.
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The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 31 was 4,810,000, an increase of 11,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,799,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,745,250, an increase of 73,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,671,500.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The first graph shows weekly claims and continued claims since 1971.

The four week moving average is at 607,500, the highest since 1982.

Continued claims are now at 4.81 million - another new record - above the previous all time peak of 4.71 million in 1982.

The second graph shows the 4-week average of initial weekly unemployment claims (blue, right scale), and total insured unemployed (red, left scale), both as a percent of covered employment.

This normalizes the data for changes in insured employment.

Another weak unemployment claims report ...