Weekly jobless claims continued to pile up for the week ending June 20, again hitting over 1 million for the week. As more people are getting back to work and the economy reopens, this number has started to shrink, but it is still massive compared to years passed.

The advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1.48 million, a decrease of 60,000 from the previous week’s revised level. That level was revised up by 32,000 from 1.508 million to 1.54 million.

The four-week moving average was 1,620,750, a decrease of 160,750 from the previous week’s revised average. That average was revised up by 8,000 from 1,773,500 to 1,781,500.

The unemployment rate was 12.3% during the week ending June 13, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from the prior week. Also the number for persons claiming unemployment benefits in state programs totaled 17.92 million, a decrease of 501,287, or 2.7%, from the previous week.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending June 6 was 30.55 million, an increase of 1.29 million from the previous week. For comparison, there were 1.546 million persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

Around the country, the highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending June 6 were in Nevada (22.6%), Puerto Rico (20.6%), Hawaii (18.3%), New York (17.8%), California (17.3%), Michigan (16.9%), Louisiana (16.2%), Massachusetts (16.2%), the Virgin Islands (16.2%) and Connecticut (15.8%).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 13 were in Oklahoma (7,254), Texas (5,047), New Jersey (3,272), New York (1,351) and Louisiana (1,243), while the largest decreases were in Florida (−24,013), Maryland (−18,188), Massachusetts (−14,731), California (−14,412) and Michigan (−6,543).

Get Our Free Investment Newsletter

I have read, and agree to the Terms of Use

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.