UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Jan. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 341,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 342,000. The 4-week moving average was 344,500, a decrease of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 347,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 10, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.5 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 10 was 3,143,000, an increase of 17,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,126,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,210,250, a decrease of 22,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,233,000.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 487,333 in the week ending Jan. 17, a decrease of 190,318 from the previous week. There were 542,563 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent during the week ending Jan. 10, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,881,870, a decrease of 276,053 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.2 percent and the volume was 4,123,632.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending Jan. 3.

53 states reported that 787,817 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending Jan. 3.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,804 in the week ending Jan. 10, an increase of 900 from the prior week. There were 2,501 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 840 from the preceding week.

There were 22,933 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Jan. 3, a decrease of 2,235 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,459, an increase of 4 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 3 were in Alaska (6.3 percent), Michigan (5.3), Pennsylvania (5.3), Oregon (5.1), Idaho (5.0), Wisconsin (5.0), Washington (4.7), Connecticut (4.3), Massachusetts (4.3), New Jersey (4.2), Rhode Island (4.2), and South Carolina (4.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 10 were in California (+14,857), Texas (+13,685), Georgia (+13,253), Illinois (+11,356), and Tennessee (+10,125), while the largest decreases were in Kentucky (-4,223), New York (-4,160), Wisconsin (-2,740), Indiana (-1,292), and Michigan
(-851).

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 126,250,343 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 01/10/2004 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000