Unemployment Initial Claims Seasonally Adjusted

This dataset contains the U.S unemployment initial claims (Seasonally Adjusted) for 1967 - 2020. Data from U.S. Department of Labor. Follow datasource.kapsarc.org for timely data to advance energy economics research.

TECHNICAL NOTES

A. Initial Claims
An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after a separation from an employer. The claimant requests a determination of basic eligibility for the UI program. When an initial claim is filed with a state, certain programmatic activities take place and these result in activity counts including the count of initial claims. The count of U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance is a leading economic indicator because it is an indication of emerging labor market conditions in the country. However, these are weekly administrative data which are difficult to seasonally adjust, making the series subject to some volatility.  (US Dep of Labor)