U.S. Weekly Jobless Claims Fall to 189,000

New applications for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to 189,000 in the week ending October 31, down 6,000 from the previous week’s revised level, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The seasonally adjusted figure points to another week of limited new jobless filings as employers have continued to avoid widespread layoffs.

Continuing claims moved the other way, rising by 23,000 to 1.718 million in their latest reporting week. Fewer new applications offer some reassurance about layoffs, but they say less about how quickly people already receiving benefits return to work.

Those figures measure different parts of the labor market. Initial claims track new applications for state unemployment insurance, while continuing claims offer a narrower view of people who remain on benefits. Neither series directly measures the pace of hiring, a distinction that matters ahead of the next monthly employment report.

New unemployment filings stay below 200,000

The Labor Department’s weekly claims release showed that the four-week moving average of initial claims decreased by 2,250 to 194,750. Averaging across four weeks helps reduce the influence of abrupt changes in a single report, and the latest decline indicates that the low reading was not confined to the October 31 week.

The previous week’s initial-claims figure was revised from 194,000 to 195,000. That revision is small, but it changes the starting point for the latest comparison. The reported drop of 6,000 is measured against the revised number, rather than the 194,000 initially published a week earlier.

Compared with the same period a year earlier, new claims are also lower. Seasonally adjusted initial filings stood at 228,000 in the comparable week of 2025, according to the department’s data table. The four-week average was 225,500 at that time, compared with 194,750 now. Both comparisons put the latest weekly decrease in a broader context.

On an unadjusted basis, state programs received 176,698 initial claims in the latest week, down 2,951 from the preceding week. That compares with 216,026 actual filings in the corresponding week last year. The unadjusted count reflects claims received without removing normal seasonal patterns, whereas the headline 189,000 figure is adjusted to make comparisons across the calendar more useful.

Seasonal adjustments account for recurring calendar patterns rather than a different category of claim. In this report, the department said seasonal factors would ordinarily have anticipated a rise in unadjusted filings. Instead, the actual count declined. Both presentations therefore point to fewer applications, even though their totals and weekly changes differ.

Continuing claims rise despite the decline in new applications

For people already collecting benefits, the movement went the other way. Seasonally adjusted continuing claims increased by 23,000 to 1.718 million in the week ending October 24, following a downward revision to the prior week’s level. The previous reading was reduced to 1.695 million from the 1.701 million first reported.

The four-week average for continuing claims edged up by 1,000 to 1,709,500. Meanwhile, the insured unemployment rate remained at 1.1%, unchanged from the preceding week. These numbers are reported with a one-week lag relative to initial claims, so the two headline totals do not cover identical weeks.

Despite the latest increase, continuing claims remain below their year-earlier level. The department reported 1.962 million seasonally adjusted continuing claims in the comparable week of 2025, with an insured unemployment rate of 1.3%. The smaller number of current benefit recipients puts the weekly increase in perspective, although it does not erase the recent uptick.

Continuing claims count eligible recipients claiming additional weeks of unemployment insurance, not everyone who is unemployed. A person can be without work and outside the measure because they are ineligible for benefits, have exhausted their entitlement or have not filed. The insured unemployment rate is therefore different from the national unemployment rate published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

There are several possible reasons why continuing claims can rise while new claims fall. People receiving benefits may remain on the rolls for longer, or fewer recipients may be leaving the program during the measurement period. The weekly release establishes the direction of the totals but does not identify which of those changes drove this particular increase. Reading the two series together is more useful than treating either one as a complete assessment of job-market conditions.

Hiring remains the question ahead of the October jobs report

The latest claims figures arrive after a subdued monthly employment reading. In its September employment report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000, while the unemployment rate held at 4.2%. The agency also reported that payroll growth had averaged 45,000 a month over the preceding 12 months. Those figures describe limited net job creation even as new claims for benefits have stayed low.

Separate labor-turnover figures released by the bureau on November 3 showed 7.5 million job openings in September and 5.4 million hires, both little changed from August. Layoffs and discharges also changed little at approximately 1.6 million, according to the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The number of quits increased to 3.4 million, offering another view of worker movement that the weekly unemployment-insurance report cannot provide.

The figures should not be compared as if they count the same event. The survey of employers estimates layoffs and other changes to payrolls across a month; weekly initial claims count applications to unemployment insurance programs. Not every laid-off worker files for or qualifies for benefits, and an initial claim is not equivalent to a newly recorded payroll loss. The measures can move in different directions without being inconsistent.

That helps explain why low new claims are reassuring about the scale of job losses but cannot, by themselves, establish that hiring is strong. Employers can hold on to existing staff while adding relatively few employees. For someone already out of work, the availability of a new position can matter more than the rate at which other workers are being laid off. The modest rise in continuing claims makes that difference especially relevant to the current report.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is scheduled to publish its October employment report on Friday, November 6, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The release will provide new figures for payroll employment and the national unemployment rate, helping clarify whether the restrained pace of hiring shown in September persisted into October.