Initial jobless claims fall to 194,000 in week ending Oct. 17, Labor Department says

Seasonally adjusted initial claims for state unemployment benefits totaled 194,000 in the week ending Oct. 17, a decrease of 6,000 from the week before, the U.S. Department of Labor said in its weekly report released Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. The figure is an advance estimate. The department revised the previous week’s level up by 1,000, from 199,000 to 200,000.¹

The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 197,750, down 1,000 from the prior week’s revised average of 198,750.¹

In the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ FRED database, which carries the department’s seasonally adjusted series, the last week with a lower reading was the week ending July 18, at 189,000.²

Seoul Economic Daily reported that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 200,000 initial claims.³

Continuing claims

Seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, the number of people continuing to claim state benefits, was 1,728,000 in the week ending Oct. 10, an advance figure that was 25,000 higher than the prior week’s revised level of 1,703,000, the department said. The prior week had been revised down by 7,000. The 4-week moving average of insured unemployment was 1,711,000, up 4,000.¹

The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.1% for the week ending Oct. 10, unchanged from the week before.¹

Unadjusted figures

Before seasonal adjustment, states reported 172,390 initial claims in the week ending Oct. 17, down 19,321, or 10.1%, from the previous week. The department said seasonal factors had expected a drop of 14,179, or 7.4%. In the comparable week of 2025 there were 205,653 initial claims.¹

Unadjusted insured unemployment was 1,481,260 in the week ending Oct. 10, up 18,771, or 1.3%, compared with an expected seasonal decrease of 3,405. A year earlier the figure was 1,674,202. The unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.0%, compared with 1.1% a year earlier.¹

Total continued weeks claimed under all programs were 1,485,572 in the week ending Oct. 3, down 40,033. No state was triggered on for the Extended Benefits program that week, the department said.¹

Federal workers and veterans

Former federal civilian employees filed 544 initial claims in the week ending Oct. 10, up 81 from the week before; the release lists 7,291 for the same week a year earlier. Newly discharged veterans filed 425 initial claims, down 91. In the week ending Oct. 3, continued weeks claimed were 5,036 for former federal workers, down 2, and 4,820 for veterans, down 73.¹

State changes

The department’s state figures for the week ending Oct. 10, not seasonally adjusted, showed these largest increases in initial claims, with the reasons states gave:¹

• Ohio, up 3,918: layoffs in manufacturing.
• Tennessee, up 3,477: layoffs in educational services and manufacturing.
• Pennsylvania, up 1,954: layoffs in administrative and support and waste management and remediation services; professional, scientific and technical services; and health care and social assistance.
• California, up 1,758: no comment given.
• Texas, up 1,721: layoffs in transportation and warehousing, accommodation and food services, and information.

Michigan also rose by more than 1,000, up 1,195, which the state attributed to manufacturing layoffs. No state reported a decrease of more than 1,000. The largest decreases were in Nevada (444), Illinois (148), Hawaii (122), Iowa (103) and New Hampshire (74).¹

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Oct. 3 were in New Jersey (2.0%), Washington (1.8%), and California and Massachusetts (1.7% each).¹

What the records do not show

• The weekly figures for Oct. 17 and Oct. 10 are advance numbers, which the department revises in later reports.¹
• State explanations name industries only; the release does not identify employers or count layoffs.¹
• The department’s online weekly claims database had not been updated beyond the week ending Sept. 26 as of Thursday afternoon, and its page carried a notice of technical issues with the database.⁴
• The economists’ forecast comes from a Bloomberg survey as reported by Seoul Economic Daily; SignalData did not see the survey itself.³