Weekly Unemployment Claims: 26 Year High

The DOL reports on weekly unemployment insurance claims:

In the week ending Dec. 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 586,000, an increase of 30,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 556,000. The 4-week moving average was 558,000, an increase of 13,750 from the previous week's revised average of 544,250.
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The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 13 was 4,370,000, a decrease of 17,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 4,387,000.
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