In the week ending August 27, initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked up 2,000 from the previous week to 263,000. The four-week moving average, a less volatile gauge that helps even out short-run swings in the data, fell 1,000 to 263,000. Jobless claims reached a postrecession low of 252,000 in July of this year and have hovered around 260,000 since then. They fell below 300,000 in early 2015 and have remained there for 78 straight weeks, the longest such streak since 1970.
