by Calculated Risk on 8/28/2008 09:10:00 AM

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending Aug. 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 425,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 435,000. The 4-week moving average was 440,250, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average of 446,250.

And continued claims are now above 3.4 million for the first time since 2003.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 16 was 3,423,000, an increase of 64,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,359,000.

By this measure, the economy is clearly in recession.