Jobless claims

Initial claims should not be confused with the number of people who actually receive unemployment benefits.

Investors can use this report to gather pertinent information about the economy, but it's a very volatile data, so the four-week average of jobless claims is monitored.

The jobless claims report is generally monitored closely as one of the few weekly labor market indicators produced by the government.

The closely watched Employment Situation Summary from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, colloquially referred to as the "jobs report", is only produced monthly.

By comparison, the monthly Employment Situation Summary's survey reference period is the week or the pay period including the 12th day of the month,[2] which means the time from data collection to release can extend for weeks.