Labor Market
First-time applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to 189,000 in the week ending Oct. 31, the Labor Department reported Thursday, Nov. 5. The seasonally adjusted advance figure was down 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 195,000.
The prior week was revised up by 1,000, from the 194,000 first reported on Oct. 29. The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly swings, fell 2,250 to 194,750 from a revised 197,000. In the comparable week of 2025, initial claims were 228,000 and the four-week average was 225,500.
At 189,000, new claims tied the week ending July 18 for the lowest reading in the department’s table of weekly figures, which runs back to the week ending Oct. 25, 2025.
More people are still drawing benefits
Continuing claims moved the other way. Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, which counts people still receiving state benefits, rose 23,000 to 1,718,000 in the week ending Oct. 24. The previous week’s level was revised down by 6,000, to 1,695,000. The four-week average of insured unemployment rose 1,000 to 1,709,500.
The insured unemployment rate held at 1.1%, compared with 1.3% a year earlier, when 1,962,000 people were drawing benefits. The rate is calculated against covered employment of 153,911,765 workers.
The two measures answer different questions. Initial claims track new separations, so a reading below 200,000 indicates employers are laying off relatively few workers. Continuing claims show how many people remain on benefits after losing a job. A rise in continuing claims while initial claims fall can mean jobless workers are taking longer to find new positions, though a single week does not establish that pattern.
Before seasonal adjustment
States reported 176,698 initial claims before seasonal adjustment in the week ending Oct. 31, down 2,951, or 1.6%, from the previous week. The department’s seasonal factors had expected an increase of 2,539, or 1.4%, which is why the adjusted figure fell more than the raw count. In the comparable week of 2025, unadjusted claims were 216,026.
Unadjusted insured unemployment rose 10,189, or 0.7%, to 1,494,812 in the week ending Oct. 24, while seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 10,169. A year earlier, 1,712,402 people were on state benefits in the comparable week.
Across all programs, 1,507,702 continued weeks were claimed in the week ending Oct. 17, up 8,510 from the previous week and down from 1,756,507 a year earlier. No state was triggered on to the Extended Benefits program.
Former federal civilian employees filed 552 initial claims in the week ending Oct. 24, up 110 from the prior week, compared with 9,436 in the comparable week a year earlier. Newly discharged veterans filed 347 claims, down 40.
State detail
In the week ending Oct. 24, the latest week with state-level changes, New York posted the largest increase in initial claims, up 2,609, followed by Texas (+1,564), California (+1,043), Pennsylvania (+818) and Ohio (+784). The largest decreases were in Michigan (-1,813), Tennessee (-977), South Carolina (-763), Kentucky (-496) and Oklahoma (-227).
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Oct. 17 were in New Jersey (2.0%), Washington (1.8%), California (1.7%) and Massachusetts (1.7%). Georgia was not among the states with the largest weekly changes or the highest rates. Advance state figures are not seasonally adjusted, are counted by the state liable for paying benefits and cover whole states, not metro areas such as Atlanta.
Caveats
The weekly figures are advance estimates and are usually revised the following week. Claims measure people applying for and receiving state unemployment insurance, not all job losses, since some laid-off workers are ineligible or do not apply. The Labor Department’s October employment report, which measures payrolls and the unemployment rate, is scheduled for release Friday, Nov. 6, and is separate from this weekly data.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, “Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims,” November 5, 2026. https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
Featured photo: The Georgia Department of Labor office in Douglas, Coffee County, Georgia, Sept. 14, 2019. Representative image; the weekly claims figures are national. Photo: Michael Rivera, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
