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In the week ending August 8, total initial unemployment claims were 186,909, an 8.4% increase from the previous week. Meanwhile, continued claims fell 1.3% to 1,811,077 in the week of August 1. Year over year, both new and continued unemployment claims have been decreasing since the beginning of July.

Initial and continued unemployment claims provide valuable insight into labor market conditions. Continued claims are a useful measure of labor market strength because they tend to roughly coincide with economic cycles. Initial claims, while more volatile from week to week, reveal important trends in layoffs and unemployment when compared to historical levels.

According to the latest data, only 14 states saw a decrease in new claims between August 1 and August 8. New Hampshire recorded the largest decrease, with new claims falling by 14.5%, followed by South Dakota (-14.2%) and Vermont (-13.9%). In contrast, new claims increased by nearly 80% in Kansas from the prior week. Kansas was followed by South Carolina (57.3%) and Michigan (43.0%).

Continued claims decreased in 28 states in the week ending August 1, with North Dakota experiencing the largest decrease of 11.4%. Michigan (-8.6%) and Tennessee (-4.3%) followed. Meanwhile, Vermont (14.4%), Delaware (8.2%), and Connecticut (7.3%) saw the largest increase in continued unemployment. In New Mexico, West Virginia, Oregon, and the District of Columbia, continued claims remained unchanged from the prior week.

Across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, initial claims declined while continued claims increased, suggesting that the effects of federal workforce reductions are still visible in the data. While new layoffs are beginning to stabilize, continued unemployment has remained elevated and has been trending upward since mid-May.

To see how unemployment insurance claims have changed in your market, select your state below: