by Calculated Risk on 2/19/2009 09:18:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending Feb. 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 627,000, unchanged from the previous week's revised figure of 627,000. The 4-week moving average was 619,000, an increase of 10,500 from the previous week's revised average of 608,500.
...
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 7 was 4,987,000, an increase of 170,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,817,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,839,500, an increase of 92,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 4,747,000.

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 619,000, the highest since 1982.

Continued claims are now at 4.99 million - another new record - above the previous all time peak of 4.71 million in 1982.

Note: I'll normalize by covered employment next week.

Another weak unemployment claims report ...