The improvement in the labor market has been more uneven in recent weeks. In the past six week initial claims for unemployment insurance, after seasonal adjustment, have risen in three of those weeks and fallen in three of them, although they are lower than they were in early July.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance were down slightly in the week ending August 22, to 1.006 million, from 1.104 million the previous week (revised slightly lower from 1.106 million). After starting the year at around 200,000 per week, claims surged to a peak of almost 7 million in late March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and states restricted economic activity. Since then claims have declined, rapidly at first and more slowly over the past couple of months.

Before seasonal adjustment initial claims were 822,000 in the week ending August 22, down by about 8 percent from the previous week.

608,000 people filed initial claims in the week ending August 22 under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance federal program, up from 525,000 the previous week. These figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Continuing claims under the regular, state-run unemployment insurance program were 14.535 million the week ending August 15, down slightly from 14.758 million the previous week (revised lower from 14.844 million). Continuing claims peaked at almost 25 million in early May and then have steadily declined, but are far above their level of around 1.7 million in early 2020, before the pandemic.

Continuing claims before seasonal adjustment were also down slightly in the week ending August 15.

Continuing claims across all programs, including PUA, were 27.017 million in the week ending August 8, down from 28.060 million the previous week. These numbers are not seasonally adjusted.

Continuing claims for unemployment are gradually falling. This indicates that some workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic are being rehired or taking new jobs, but that many others remain jobless. Unemployment in the U.S. economy is slowly declining. So far there is no indication yet that the expiration of an extra $600 per week in UI benefits at the end of July 31 has led to a big drop in unemployment.

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