U.S. jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 197,000 in the week ended September 26, the Labor Department said in its October 1 report. The advance total was 1,000 below the previous week’s revised level of 198,000.
The four-week average declined by 2,500 to 200,000. The preceding average was revised upward by 250 to 202,500, so the latest comparison incorporates a revision rather than using the originally published figure.
Initial claims are applications for unemployment insurance. They are not a count of new jobs or a complete measure of everyone without work.
The distinction matters because the Bureau of Labor Statistics measures unemployment through a household survey. People without jobs who actively sought work in the preceding four weeks and were available to work are generally classified as unemployed; people on temporary layoff expecting recall are an exception to the active-search requirement.
Receiving unemployment benefits is not required for classification as unemployed. Someone can be included in the unemployment rate without applying for benefits, while unemployment-insurance eligibility depends on program rules.
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The latest available August employment report recorded a payroll increase of 162,000 and an unemployment rate of 4.1%. BLS said food services and drinking places added jobs, local government education employment increased, and information employment declined.
June and July payroll changes were revised upward by a combined 55,000 in that release. Those revisions referred to earlier months, not to September employment.
The BLS release calendar scheduled the September Employment Situation for October 2 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. At the reporting cutoff for this article, that release had not yet been published; no September payroll or unemployment-rate figure is reported here.
Payroll employment and household employment also have different coverage. BLS’s payroll-survey definitions describe employment as a count of jobs rather than people. A person paid by two separate employers can appear twice in payroll employment.
The payroll survey excludes the unincorporated self-employed, unpaid family workers, farm workers and private household workers. The household survey includes employment categories outside that payroll coverage.
Weekly volatility has long accompanied claims reporting. In FINCHANNEL’s August 20, 2015 report, initial claims increased by 4,000 to 277,000 while the four-week average stood at 271,500. Those historical figures belong to 2015 and are provided as background rather than a current labor-market benchmark.