UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 339,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 350,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,750, a decrease of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 339,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending July 10, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.4 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 10 was 2,797,000, a decrease of 167,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,964,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,894,250, a decrease of 38,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,933,000.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 391,807 in the week ending July 17, a decrease of 52,393 from the previous week. There were 429,381 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending July 10, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,903,256, an increase of 173,678 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.9 percent and the volume was 3,692,996.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending July 3.

6,171 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending July 3.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,027 in the week ending July 10, a decrease of 45 from the prior week. There were 1,985 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 16 from the preceding week.

There were 14,293 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 3, a decrease of 1,133 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 24,937, a decrease of 564 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 3 were in Puerto Rico (4.1 percent), Alaska (3.4), New Jersey (3.3), Oregon (3.2), Pennsylvania (3.2), Rhode Island (2.9), Massachusetts (2.8), Michigan (2.8), Arkansas (2.7), and Connecticut (2.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 10 were in Michigan (+28,118), Kentucky (+10,343), New York (+10,003), Indiana (+8,688), and North Carolina (+5,367), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-4,526), Massachusetts (-1,718), Connecticut (-1,694), Colorado (-479), and Rhode Island (-392).

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 126,088,081 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 07/10/2004 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000