Initial Jobless Claims is a weekly economic release by the US Department of Labor, which measures the total number of persons who filed for unemployment insurance benefits for the first time during the past week. This number presents volatility due to seasonality, but acts as an indicator about the strength of the general labor market. In general lower weekly readings are positive for the US Dollar and the US economy. These weekly Initial Jobless Claims are one of the two parts of the Jobless Claims, the other part are Continuing Jobless Claims. The most positive scenario on weekly basis for the US Dollar and the US economy is to have both falling Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Jobless Claims.
The United States Initial Jobless Claims
The United States Initial Jobless Claims latest reading was 247.000 on July 13th 2017, which was higher than the forecast reading of 245.000, but lower than the previous weekly reading of 250.000. Historically the long-term average for the United States Initial Jobless Claims and the period of years 1967-2017 has been 357.090, with an all-time high reading of 695.000 in October of 1982, and an all-time low reading of 162.000 in November of 1968. Overall from 2013 until the 2017, the United States Initial Jobless Claims show a downtrend, which reflects a current strong labor market.
