Weekly Jobless Claims Fall, Continuing Applications Increase

01:08 PM EDT, 06/18/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Weekly applications for unemployment insurance in the US dropped, while continuing claims moved higher, official data showed Thursday.

For the week through June 13, the seasonally adjusted number of initial claims decreased by 4,000 to 226,000, the Department of Labor said. The consensus was for a 225,000 print in a Bloomberg poll. The previous week's figure was revised up by 1,000 to 230,000.

The four-week moving average totaled 223,250, up by 4,000 from the prior week's average, which was revised up by 250. Unadjusted claims decreased by 9,446 to 219,509, according to the report.

Seasonally adjusted continuing claims for the week ended June 6 reached 1.81 million, compared with Wall Street's expectations of 1.79 million. Continuing claims climbed by 24,000 from the previous week's level, which was revised down by 9,000. The four-week moving average increased by 9,750 to about 1.79 million from the previous week's downwardly revised average, according to the DOL.

"We don't expect claims to trend consistently higher from here," Oxford Economics Lead US Economist Nancy Vanden Houten said in remarks e-mailed to MT Newswires.

"Despite the bounce off the recent lows, the level of initial claims -- averaging just above 220,000 -- is still consistent with a broad range of labor market indicators that show the job market has improved but isn't overheating," Vanden Houten said. "That will allow the (Federal Reserve) to keep (monetary) policy on hold while it waits for inflation to come down."

On Wednesday, the US central bank's Federal Open Market Committee left its benchmark lending rate unchanged for a fourth straight meeting. The FOMC removed the so-called easing bias from its latest statement while raising its interest rate expectations through 2028, saying inflation remains elevated.

"We're out on a limb in still expecting a rate cut, and the risk is that the Fed remains on hold for longer than we anticipate," Vanden Houten said Thursday. "Our call for a rate cut is based on our forecast for inflation to fall faster than the median Fed projection."

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