Jobless Claims Unexpectedly Drop to 196,000, Year-To-Date Hits Low Not Seen Since 1969

Jobless claims fell last week to levels rarely seen since the late 1960s.

Initial claims declined by 10,000 to 196,000 in the week ended September 12, according to Labor Department data released Thursday. Economists had forecast around 207,000.

This year, claims have been extraordinarily low by historical standards. Prior to this year, the weekly initial claims number has only been this low four times since 1969. There was not a single week from 1970 to 2018 with claims this low.

Claims can be volatile from week to week, especially around holidays like last week’s Labor Day. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out weekly jumps and is often considered a better measure of the underlying health of the labor market, fell by 2,750 to 203,250.

So far this year, claims have averaged 210,216, the lowest average through the same number of weeks since 1969 and the third lowest of all time in data going back to 1967. The year-to-date through September average did not fall this low for 57 years.

Continuing claims dropped to 1.73 million in the previous week, the lowest since 2024.