The four-week moving average of US jobless claims fell to an anomalously low 58,000 for the week ending October 18, 2025, a level distorted by the data blackout during the nation’s longest government shutdown. Because claims were not collected for the weeks ending September 27, October 4, and October 11, the average is calculated using a single reported figure, 232,000 initial claims for the latest period, combined with zeros for the missing weeks. For comparison, in the week ending September 20, the most recent period with fully reported data, the four-week average stood at 237,750.