UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Jan. 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 353,000, an increase of 14,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 339,000. The 4-week moving average was 350,250, a decrease of 5,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 355,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending Dec. 27, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Dec. 27 was 3,273,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,285,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,275,000, a decrease of 10,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,285,500.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 546,823 in the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 30,431 from the previous week. There were 620,004 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent during the week ending Dec. 27, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,724,660, an increase of 485,181 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.2 percent and the volume was 4,081,930.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending Dec. 20.

53 states reported that 765,570 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending Dec. 20.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,368 in the week ending Dec. 27, a decrease of 748 from the prior week. There were 1,618 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 21 from the preceding week.

There were 20,665 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Dec. 20, a decrease of 3,559 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 23,234, a decrease of 2,685 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Dec. 20 were in Alaska (5.5 percent), Oregon (4.0), Washington (4.0), Pennsylvania (3.8), Idaho (3.6), Puerto Rico (3.5), Michigan (3.4), Wisconsin (3.4), Massachusetts (3.3), and New Jersey (3.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Dec. 27 were in Michigan (+20,583), Wisconsin (+16,375), Pennsylvania (+13,179), Massachusetts (+7,043), and New Jersey (+5,930), while the largest decreases were in Missouri (-2,566), Kentucky (-2,288), Florida (-2,198), North Carolina
(-1,212), and South Carolina (-1,186).

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 126,428,924 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 12/27/2003 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000