According to the US Department of Labor, in the week ending January 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 470,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 478,000. The 4-week moving average was 456,250, an increase of 9,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 446,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5% for the week ending January 16, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate of 3.6%.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 16 was 4,602,000, a decrease of 57,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,659,000. The 4-week moving average was 4,669,250, a decrease of 94,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,763,500.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.404 million.