November 7, 2026 —Initial jobless claims are the number of new applications for unemployment insurance filed by people who have separated from an employer. The measure is released weekly and is one of the earliest recurring signals of whether layoffs are rising or easing, but it is not a count of everyone without a job.
What are initial jobless claims?
An initial claim is filed after a job separation and asks the unemployment-insurance system to determine whether the applicant is eligible for benefits. The St. Louis Federal Reserve’s FRED series identifies the U.S. Employment and Training Administration as the source and reports the measure weekly, usually by week ending Saturday, in both seasonally adjusted and unadjusted versions.
The phrase “jobless claims” is often used as shorthand for initial claims. The important distinction is that the statistic measures filings for unemployment insurance, not the total number of people who lost jobs, the total number of unemployed people, or the unemployment rate. Someone who is not eligible, does not file, or has not yet filed is not necessarily represented in the initial-claims count.
What are continuing claims?
Continuing claims, also called insured unemployment, count people who have already filed an initial claim, then experienced another week of unemployment and filed a claim for benefits for that week. Unlike initial claims, which indicate new entries into the benefit system, continuing claims provide information about how many people remain in it.
The two measures answer different questions. Initial claims ask whether more people are newly seeking unemployment benefits. Continuing claims ask whether people who have already sought benefits are moving back into work or remaining unemployed. A rise in both measures is generally more concerning than a one-week increase in initial claims alone; a rise in continuing claims can indicate that job seekers are taking longer to find work.
How are claims different from the unemployment rate?
Claims are a weekly flow of benefit applications. The unemployment rate is a monthly measure from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ household survey that describes labor-force status. Because the programs, definitions and collection schedules differ, the measures will not always move together.