Continued Claims' Four-Week Moving Average Declines for Eighth Consecutive Week

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC) reports that continued claims and the continued claims’ four-week moving average declined for the eighth consecutive week, while initial claims and the initial claims’ four-week moving average increased for the week ending March 19.

“Oklahoma continues to report unemployment numbers that fall well below pre-pandemic numbers, and we are consistently seeing record-setting workforce participation,” said OESC Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt, “Also, in February, Oklahoma added nearly 7,000 nonfarm jobs. This increase in jobs and the steady decline in our continued claims four-week moving average are significant indicators of the strength of our economy. As we have noted previously, the increase in initial claims is consistent with historical trends for the month of March.” 

• For the file week ending March 19, the number of initial claims, unadjusted, totaled 2,261, an increase of 400 from the previous week's level of 1,861. 
• For the same file week, the less volatile initial claims’ four-week moving average was 1,779, an increase of 165 from the previous week's average of 1,614.
• The number of continued claims totaled 11,622, a decrease of 225 from the previous week’s level of 11,847.
• Continued claims’ four-week moving average was 11,851, a decrease of 221 from the previous week's average of 12,072.

Nationally, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims for the week ending March 26 was 202,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's revised level, the U.S. Department of Labor (U.S. DOL) reports. The four-week moving average was 208,500, a decrease of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average. For the week ending March 19, the U.S. DOL reports the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 0.9%, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate.

The national weekly seasonally adjusted initial claims report is one of 10 components in the Composite Index of Leading Economic Indicators. To smooth out the volatility in the weekly initial claims data, a four-week moving average is used to assess trends.