Continuing Jobless Claims

Continuing Jobless Claims measure insured unemployment, meaning workers covered by Unemployment Insurance who filed continued claims for a week of unemployment. The count comes from full administrative records across the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, plus federal programs. It is a census of records, not a survey sample. It does not measure total unemployment, since it excludes uninsured workers, new entrants, and people who exhausted benefits.

Claim weeks end Saturday, and each Thursday release covers initial claims for the prior week plus continuing claims for one week earlier. Publication occurs Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern under embargo, shifting when Thursday is a Federal holiday. Each release shows the seasonally adjusted level with the insured unemployment rate. It also shows the 4-week moving average, state tables, and federal program counts.

Advance figures rest on liable-state reports, meaning the paying state, through report ETA 538. The next week revises them by residence state, meaning where claimants live, through report ETA 539. Each calendar year brings new seasonal factors, and the history is revised.

The headline sums continued weeks claimed across regular and special programs, so each part moves it.

• Regular state programs: continued weeks under 53 regular state programs, the bulk of insured unemployment.
• Federal programs (UCFE and UCX): continued weeks for former federal civilian staff and newly discharged veterans. These cover Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees and Unemployment Compensation for Ex-servicemembers, two small add-ons.
• Extended Benefits (EB): weeks claimed when extension programs are payable in listed states.

• All-programs total: the sum across regular, federal, and extension programs for the week.
• Insured unemployment rate (IUR): the derived rate published beside the level each week.
• 4-week moving average: the mean of the latest four adjusted weekly values, smoothing noise.

For the week ending July 26, 2025, adjusted claims rose to 1,974,000, up 38,000. That was the highest since November 6, 2021, at 2,041,000. The adjusted rate stayed at 1.3%, unchanged, so the rounded rate hid the level jump. The prior week was revised down by 10,000, from 1,946,000 to 1,936,000.

The 4-week average rose only 5,000 to 1,951,750, muting the weekly jump. Raw claims fell by 434 to 2,005,471, while adjusted claims rose. Seasonal factors had expected a 38,724 drop, or 1.9%, that never came.

1. Count continued claims: each state reports continued claims filed for the reference week, summed directly with no weighting.

1. Advance estimate (ETA 538 report): first counts use liable-state data, meaning the paying state regardless of residence.

1. Revision (ETA 539 report): the next week revises claims by residence state, meaning where claimants live.

1. Seasonal adjustment: the adjustment removes normal seasonal swings with yearly factors from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the example above, raw claims fell 434 while the factors expected a 38,724 drop, or 1.9%, leaving an adjusted rise of 38,000 to 1,974,000.

1. Rate and averages: the average sums the latest 4 weekly levels and divides by 4. The rate divides insured unemployment by covered employment, times 100, using a 12-month average for the first 4 of the last 6 quarters. Federal establishments sit outside this coverage.