Weekly Unemployment
Weekly Unemployment
Weekly Unemployment
Weekly time series of US initial jobless claims — the number of individuals filing for unemployment insurance for the first time in a given week. Released each Thursday by the US Department of Labor, this is one of the most closely watched high-frequency labor market indicators in economics, providing a near real-time read on layoff activity and labor market stress. Values are expressed as a whole number count (e.g. 215000 = 215,000 claims).
Fields: unemploymentInitialClaims · country · date
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Use Cases
Macro backdrop context in equity research, labor market health monitoring, Fed policy expectation modeling, recession early warning signal, consumer spending and retail sector analysis, earnings preview context for labor-intensive industries, alert rule triggers on claims threshold breaches, and trend analysis via 4-week moving average calculations.
Highlights
Weekly initial jobless claims is one of the highest-frequency macroeconomic indicators available, released just days after the reference period ends. As a real-time pulse on layoff activity, it is widely used by economists, strategists, and equity analysts to gauge labor market resilience, anticipate shifts in Fed policy, and contextualize consumer-facing sector performance. At sub-250k levels the labor market is generally considered healthy; sustained moves above 300k historically signal deteriorating conditions.
Provider
Methods
https://api.blueskyapi.com/v1/data/CORE/LABOR_MARKET_WEEKLYhttps://api.blueskyapi.com/v1/data/CORE/LABOR_MARKET_WEEKLY/:country
Time Series Query Parameters
You can use any time series query parameters with this dataset.
View the full documentation →
Response Attributes
| Key | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
country* key | string | |
date* index | string | |
| unemploymentInitialClaims | number, null |
* required
| Field | Type | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| date | string | YYYY-MM-DD | Week ending date (Saturdays) |
| country | string | — | Country code (e.g. US) |
| unemploymentInitialClaims | integer | Count | Number of initial unemployment insurance filings that week (e.g. 215000 = 215,000) |
| id | string | — | Dataset identifier (LABOR_MARKET_WEEKLY) |
| key | string | — | Partition key (US) |
| subkey | string | — | Sub-partition key (empty) |
| updated | float | Unix ms | Timestamp of last data refresh |
Disclaimer
Weekly initial jobless claims data is sourced from the US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). This data is provided for informational purposes only and is subject to the terms of use of the respective data providers. Blue-Sky Data Platform LLC makes no representations as to the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the data and accepts no liability for decisions made in reliance upon it. Users are responsible for ensuring their use of this data complies with applicable provider terms and licensing requirements.
Attribution
Initial jobless claims data: US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED). FRED series: ICSA.