Initial claims for unemployment benefits slipped to 197,000 in the week ended September 19, down 1,000 from the prior week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. According to Breitbart News, the reading is among the lowest in decades and underscores how unusually rare layoffs have been through most of this year.
Weekly claims act as a rough proxy for layoffs, and the current level is historically extreme by that measure. Between 1970 and 2018, there were no weeks in which claims fell this low, according to the report. Only eight weeks in recent years have matched it: twice in April 2019, twice in September 2022, once in January 2024, and three times in 2026 — including the latest release.
A four-week average near record lows
The four-week moving average, which strips out some of the week-to-week noise, fell to 202,250 — its lowest level in six weeks. That figure has been this low only 93 times since records began in 1967, and 83 of those readings came during the 1967–1969 stretch. Between 1970 and the end of 2025, the average reached this level just seven times, and none of those occurred between 1970 and 2019. Three more have now been added this year, all in recent weeks.
Even more striking than any single week is the persistence of the trend. Since the start of the year, claims have averaged 209,947. That is only the third time the average for the first 38 weeks of a year has dropped this low, with the previous two instances coming in 1968 and 1969. The next lowest comparable figure was 215,553 in 2019.
Continuing claims hold near recent lows
Continuing claims, which track people who remain on unemployment benefits after an initial filing, were little changed at 1.72 million in the week ended September 12. That is close to the lowest level since 2023.
The data add to a picture of a labor market in which employers are hiring cautiously and, more notably, letting very few workers go. Layoffs have been the missing piece of the usual recession playbook, even as other indicators — hiring rates, job openings, and the pace of wage growth — have cooled from their post-pandemic peaks.
For policymakers, the absence of a broad wave of dismissals has been a central argument for holding the line on interest rates, though officials have repeatedly warned that the low-claims regime could shift quickly if demand weakens. For now, the numbers continue to come in below nearly every historical comparison point available.
Seasonal adjustment quirks can produce unusually low readings on occasion, which is one reason economists tend to lean on the four-week average. Even that smoother measure, however, is sitting in territory it has visited only a handful of times in more than half a century — and almost never outside the late 1960s.
The year-to-date average is perhaps the most difficult figure to dismiss as a fluke, since it spans 38 weeks and covers a wide range of industries and regions. The last time the first three quarters of a year produced an average this low, the federal funds rate was far different, the workforce was smaller, and the Labor Department’s current claims series was still in its infancy.
The next weekly report is due Thursday, September 24, and will give the first indication of whether the streak extends further or begins to unwind.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2026/09/24/jobless-claims-dip-to-197000-year-to-date-lowest-since-1969/