Initial Jobless Claims: 213K (Feb 2026)
The initial claims held steady at 213K in Feb 2026. Year-over-year, the reading is down 254000.00 from 467K.
Initial Claims - Historical Chart
Initial Claims, Seasonally Adjusted. Gray shaded areas indicate U.S. recessions.
Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED), Series ICSA. Shaded areas = NBER recession dates. Updated 2026-03-09.
What the Feb 2026 Data Shows
At 213K, the initial claims in Feb 2026 is below the 10-year average of 374K by 161243.65. The reading has been mixed recently, fluctuating without a clear directional trend over the past 6 months.
Initial jobless claims (FRED series ICSA) count the number of new unemployment insurance filings each week. Published every Thursday morning for the prior week, this is the highest-frequency labor market indicator available from government data.
Claims below 250,000 per week indicate a strong labor market. Between 250,000 and 350,000 is moderate. Above 350,000 signals significant layoff activity. During the 2009 recession, weekly claims exceeded 650,000. During the COVID lockdowns in March-April 2020, they briefly exceeded 6 million -- an unprecedented level.
The weekly frequency makes claims data inherently noisy. The 4-week moving average smooths out week-to-week volatility caused by holidays, weather, seasonal patterns, and reporting quirks. Analysts typically focus on the trend rather than any single week's reading.
What This Metric Measures
This page tracks the number of new unemployment insurance claims filed during the week, seasonally adjusted, as reported by the Department of Labor. The data comes from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis FRED database, series ICSA, updated weekly.
Historical Context
The all-time peak was 6.1M in Apr 2020 — roughly 28.8x the current level. The all-time trough was 162K in Nov 1968. During COVID-19 in 2020, the reading hit 6.1M (Apr 2020). Year-over-year, the metric has moved -54.4%.
Why It Matters
Initial claims are a real-time layoff tracker. Unlike the monthly employment report (which tells you what happened 3-5 weeks ago), claims data is only one week old. A sudden jump in claims is often the first statistical evidence that the labor market is weakening.
For business owners, rising claims in your state or industry signal that competitors are laying off workers. This can mean reduced consumer spending in your market, but it can also mean a larger pool of available workers if you are hiring.
What This Means for Business Owners
Understanding where this metric stands relative to historical norms helps business owners make better borrowing decisions. Metrics far from their 10-year average often signal turning points that affect the cost and availability of credit.
Initial Jobless Claims - Frequently Asked Questions
Initial jobless claims are 213000.00 for the most recent week, per FRED series ICSA. This is seasonally adjusted.
Claims moved unchanged from the prior week. The reading has been mixed recently, fluctuating without a clear directional trend over the past 6 months. Focus on the 4-week moving average for the underlying trend.
Claims sustainably above 300,000-350,000 per week have historically been associated with recessions. Below 250,000 indicates a tight labor market. The current reading should be compared to these thresholds.
Weekly claims spiked from 200,000 to over 6 million in April 2020, far exceeding anything in the data's history. The spike was so extreme that it distorted seasonal adjustment factors for several years afterward.
Yes, with a 1-2 month lead. Rising initial claims flow into continuing claims, which feed into the household survey that produces the unemployment rate. A sustained rise in claims reliably predicts a rising unemployment rate.
FRED series ICSA, from the Department of Labor's weekly Unemployment Insurance claims report. Published every Thursday at 8:30 AM ET.
Related Data & Guides
Data sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) maintained by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Updated monthly when new data is released.