Weekly count of new unemployment insurance claims — the most timely labor market

Weekly count of new unemployment insurance claims — the most timely labor market indicator available. Released every Thursday, one week lag. First sign of labor market deterioration. Use for real-time recession monitoring and NFP forecasting. Weekly frequency with full derived metrics.

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Endpoint

GET https://stationfx.com/economic-data/labor/initial-claims

Our checks, last 30 days

Example input (from the provider)

{
  "method": "GET",
  "queryParams": {
    "date_from": "2024-01-01",
    "date_to": "2024-12-31",
    "fmt": "json"
  },
  "type": "http"
}

Promised output schema (from the provider)

{
  "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
  "properties": {
    "input": {
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "method": {
          "description": "HTTP method. Always GET for StationFX query endpoints",
          "enum": [
            "GET",
            "HEAD",
            "DELETE"
          ],
          "type": "string"
        },
        "queryParams": {
          "properties": {
            "date_from": {
              "description": "Start date YYYY-MM-DD",
              "type": "string"
            },
            "date_to": {
              "description": "End date YYYY-MM-DD",
              "type": "string"
            },
            "fields": {
              "description": "Comma-separated metric names",
              "type": "string"
            },
            "fmt": {
              "description": "Response format. Use toon for compact agent-friendly output.",
              "enum": [
                "json",
                "toon"
              ],
              "type": "string"
            }
          },
          "type": "object"
        },
        "type": {
          "const": "http",
          "description": "Always \"http\" for HTTP endpoints",
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type",
        "method"
      ],
      "type": "object"
    },
    "output": {
      "properties": {
        "example": {
          "description": "Station f(x) response with metadata and pre-computed derived metrics",
          "properties": {
            "data": {
              "description": "Observations ordered by date ascending",
              "items": {
                "properties": {
                  "above_trend": {
                    "description": "1 if value is above long-run trend, else 0",
                    "type": "integer"
                  },
                  "date": {
                    "description": "Observation date YYYY-MM-DD",
                    "type": "string"
                  },
                  "mom_change": {
                    "description": "Month-over-month absolute change",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "mom_pct": {
                    "description": "Month-over-month % change",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "pct_rank_5y": {
                    "description": "Percentile rank over trailing 5 years (0-100)",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "rolling_12m_avg": {
                    "description": "12-month rolling average",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "rolling_3m_avg": {
                    "description": "3-month rolling average",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "trend_direction": {
                    "description": "Trend: 1 rising, -1 falling, 0 flat",
                    "type": "integer"
                  },
                  "value": {
                    "description": "Raw observed value in series units",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "yoy_change": {
                    "description": "Year-over-year absolute change",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "yoy_pct": {
                    "description": "Year-over-year % change",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "zscore_12m": {
                    "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 12 months",
                    "type": "number"
                  },
                  "zscore_5y": {
                    "description": "Z-score relative to trailing 5 years",
                    "type": "number"
                  }
                },
                "type": "object"
              },
              "type": "array"
            },
            "meta": {
              "description": "Series metadata: source_key (FRED series ID), units, frequency (D/W/M/Q/A), date_from, date_to, fields",
              "type": "object"
            }
          },
          "type": "object"
        },
        "type": {
          "description": "Response format. Always \"json\" (or \"toon\" if fmt=toon was requested)",
          "type": "string"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type"
      ],
      "type": "object"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "input"
  ],
  "type": "object"
}

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