According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending March 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 646,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 658,000. The 4-week moving average was 654,750, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week’s revised average of 651,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.1% for the week ending March 7, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from the prior week’s revised rate of 3.9%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 7 was 5,473,000, an increase of 185,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 5,288,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,251,250, an increase of 118,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 5,132,500.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.577 million.