by Calculated Risk on 8/05/2010 08:30:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending July 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 479,000, an increase of 19,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 460,000. The 4-week moving average was 458,500, an increase of 5,250 from the previous week's revised average of 453,250.
...
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 24 was 4,537,000, a decrease of 34,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,571,000.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since January 2000.

The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims increased this week by 5,250 to 458,500.

The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The 4-week average of initial weekly claims has been at about the same level since December 2009 (eight months) and the 4-week average of 458,500 is high historically, and suggests a weak labor market.

This is the highest number of initial weekly claims since April.