EconoIndicators

Jobless Claims At a Glance

• Initial Claims: 448,000
• Change from Last Week: Up 44,000
• 4-Week Moving Average: 393,500
• Insured Unemployment Rate: 2.5
• Insured Unemployment: 3,282,000

All numbers seasonally adjusted.

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UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 448,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 404,000. The 4-week moving average was 393,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 382,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending July 19, an increase of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 2.3 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 19 was 3,282,000, an increase of 185,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,097,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,174,500, an increase of 42,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,131,750.

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 2.957 million.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 375,627 in the week ending July 26, a decrease of 36,898 from the previous week. There were 257,426 initial claims in the comparable week in 2007.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending July 19, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,213,405, an increase of 48,639 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9 percent and the volume was 2,463,232.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska during the week ending July 12.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,434 in the week ending July 19, a decrease of 347 from the prior week. There were 1,706 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 149 from the preceding week.

There were 12,790 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 12, an increase of 162 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 20,538, an increase of 487 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 12 were in Puerto Rico (5.0 percent), Michigan (3.7), New Jersey (3.4), Rhode Island (3.4), Pennsylvania (3.3), Oregon (3.2), Wisconsin (3.2), California (3.1), Connecticut (2.9), Massachusetts (2.9), and Nevada (2.9).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 19 were in Florida (+4,178), Wisconsin (+2,982), Louisiana (+1,212), Illinois (+1,206), and Texas (+1,162), while the largest decreases were in New York (-20,450), Michigan (-6,598), Missouri (-5,065), Pennsylvania (-4,696), and Georgia
(-4,347).

FOOTNOTES
SA – Seasonally Adjusted Data
NSA –
Not Seasonally Adjusted Data
¹ – Prior year is comparable
to most recent data.

² – Most recent week used covered employment of 133,690,617 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 07/19/2008 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

Prior Week Detail by State

Source: Employment and Training Administration