Labor
Weekly Claims — Week of September 5, 2026
Released September 10, 2026 · 8:30 AM ET · Source: U.S. Department of Labor
The read · narrated
The read
If you lost a job this summer, the number that says how hard it was to get back in isn’t the one in the headlines. And it hasn’t moved since April.
Start with the headline anyway. New filings last week: two hundred six thousand, down a thousand. On its own, that tells you nothing.
So take the four-week average. It fell fifteen hundred — and that matters, because it had risen four weeks running. That climb is the one we flagged last week. It stopped at four.
Why did the average fall more than the week did? Because the week that dropped out of it — August eighth, two hundred twelve thousand — was the highest of the five. But stopping isn’t reversing. The average is still seven thousand above where it started August.
And history says take the stall seriously, not for granted. Since nineteen ninety, that average has climbed four straight weeks and then fallen sixty-two times. Three months on, it was lower in thirty-seven of them. The last five times, it was higher.
Now the gauge that matters more. Not who filed — who’s still collecting. That four-week average is one million seven hundred seventy-nine thousand. Lowest since May, and down thirty thousand across eight weeks.
Then the third gauge, the one that divides out how many workers are covered. The share drawing benefits: one point two percent. Same as last week, and the week before — eighteen straight weeks without moving. That’s the number from the top.
The level check we run every week. The filings average, thirty-three thousand below a year ago. The collecting count, a hundred fifty-three thousand below. The share drawing, one point two against one point three. All three still below.
So what does the Fed read here, five days out? On the labor side, nothing that forces a move either way. Yesterday we showed wholesale costs climbing upstream, and this report doesn’t speak to that. What it says is that the labor market isn’t the half of the mandate making this decision hard.
Watch the collecting count. That’s the one that says whether people are getting back in. We’ll see it again Thursday.
| Measure | Latest | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| New filings, 4-week average | 206,000 · Sep 5 | ▼ first fall after four straight weekly rises |
| Still collecting, 4-week average | 1,779,000 · Aug 29 | ▼ lowest since May — down 30,000 in eight weeks |
Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims, week ending September 5, 2026, U.S. Department of Labor (Employment and Training Administration), released September 10, 2026. All figures on this page are seasonally adjusted, which is this publication’s standing practice for this release; the unadjusted series swings on seasonal patterns and is not used here, in any form. The print. New filings 206,000, down 1,000 from the prior week’s revised 207,000; the four-week average 206,000, down 1,500 from a revised 207,500. Insured unemployment, which the release dates one week earlier, 1,774,000 for the week ending August 29, down 1,000 from a revised 1,775,000; its four-week average 1,779,000, down 1,750. The insured unemployment rate 1.2%. Series are ICSA, IC4WSA, CCSA, CC4WSA and IURSA via FRED, which is the Department’s canonical distribution for these numbers. The four-week average. It had risen in each of the four weeks to August 29 — from 199,000 on August 1 to 207,500 — and this is the first week it fell. It fell by more than the weekly figure did because a moving average discards one observation for each one it adds: the week leaving was August 8 at 212,000, the highest of the five, and the week joining was September 5 at 206,000. Both the current and prior four-week windows were checked against the published averages. The average remains 7,000 above where it started August. The precedent. Since 1990 the four-week average has risen four or more consecutive weeks and then fallen on 62 occasions. Three months later it stood lower on 37 of them and higher on 25. The five most recent occasions — December 2022, April 2023, February 2024, June 2024 and March 2025 — all stood higher three months on, which is why this read treats the stall as unconfirmed rather than settled. The collecting count. Its four-week average of 1,779,000 is the lowest since May 30, 2026, and is down 30,250 from 1,809,250 eight weeks earlier. The insured rate. 1.2% for an 18th consecutive week; the most recent different reading was 1.1% for the week ending April 25, 2026. The rate is published to one decimal place, so it is a coarse gauge — it is carried here because it divides the collecting count by the number of workers the system covers, which a headcount alone does not. The level check, against the same week a year earlier: the filings four-week average 33,250 lower, the collecting count 153,000 lower, the insured rate 1.2% against 1.3%. Revisions. This release revised the figures we published on September 6 in both directions: the week-ending-August-29 filings we carried at 206,000 now read 207,000 and that four-week average 207,250 now reads 207,500, while the week-ending-August-22 collecting count we carried at 1,779,000 now reads 1,775,000 and its average 1,781,750 now reads 1,780,750. Because the release dates insured unemployment one week behind initial claims, each of those comparisons is made against the same calendar week rather than the same release. No cross-gauge magnitude comparison is made here. Initial claims and continuing claims sit on bases roughly nine times apart, so a movement in one cannot be set against a movement in the other without normalising; the insured rate is the gauge that does that. The Federal Reserve next decides on September 16. The next claims report is Thursday, September 17.