U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Fall to 196,000
Brief · Published 2026-09-18 · Data period 2026-09-12
This brief was generated automatically from the published data; no human byline is attached. Read the methodology.
Initial jobless claims fell to 196,000 in the week ended September 12, from 206,000 in the prior week. The latest reading was down from 233,000 in the same week a year earlier. Continuing jobless claims totaled 1,730,000 in the week ended September 5, and the unemployment rate was 4.1% in August. The series all-time high was 6,137,000 in April 2020, and its all-time low was 162,000 in November 1968, according to Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
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Source & methodology
Data source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
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