In the week ending July 23, initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 14,000 from the previous week to 266,000. The Labor Department adjusts for seasonal variation, however. Automobile factories often shut down during the summer to retool, temporarily laying off workers and potentially causing distortions in the weekly numbers. The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge that helps even out short-run swings in the data, fell 1,000 to 256,500—a three-month low. Jobless claims have been steadily falling from their 2009 peak. They reached a four-decade low in April and have remained below 300,000 for 73 straight weeks, the longest such streak since 1973.
