Initial Claims for the Week Ended Dec 27
Updated: 31-Dec-25 08:48 ET





Highlights

• Initial jobless claims for the week ending December 27 decreased by 16,000 to 199,000 (Briefing.com consensus 226,000) from last week's revised rate of 215,000 (from 214,000).
• Continuing claims for the week ending December 20 decreased by 47,000 from last week's revised rate of 1.913 million (from 1.923 million) to 1.866 million.

Key Factors

• The four-week moving average for initial claims increased by 1,750 to 218,750.
• The four-week moving average for continuing claims decreased by 17,750 to 1,873,500.
• The total number of continued weeks claimed for benefits in all programs for the week ending December 13 was 2,021,951, an increase of 116,047 from the previous week. Claims filed in the comparable week a year ago totaled 1,974,874.

Big Picture

• The key takeaway from the report is that initial claims decreased unexpectedly, coming in below 200,000 for just the second time this year. This should be encouraging to a market that has grown more sensitive to signals from the labor market.

Category	Dec 27	Dec 20	Dec 13	Dec 6	Nov 29
Initial Claims	199K	215K	224K	237K	192K
4-Wk Moving Avg	217K	217K	218K	217K	215K
Continued Benefits		1866K	1913K	1885K	1830K
4-Wk Moving Avg		1874K	1891K	1899K	1916K