UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Feb. 5, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 303,000, a decrease of 13,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 316,000. The 4-week moving average was 315,500, a decrease of 16,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 331,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending Jan. 29, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 29 was 2,737,000, an increase of 47,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,690,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,734,000, an increase of 22,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,711,500.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 346,075 in the week ending Feb. 5, a decrease of 18,438 from the previous week. There were 433,234 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent during the week ending Jan. 29, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,303,635, an increase of 40,656 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.1 percent and the volume was 3,850,990.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Jan. 22.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,458 in the week ending Jan. 29, an increase of 230 from the prior week. There were 1,956 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 132 from the preceding week.

There were 32,884 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Jan. 22, an increase of 11,676 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 28,077, an increase of 797 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 22 were in Alaska (6.3 percent), Michigan (4.3), Puerto Rico (4.3), Wisconsin (4.0), Idaho (3.9), Oregon (3.8), Pennsylvania (3.7), Massachusetts (3.5), New Jersey (3.5), and Rhode Island (3.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 29 were in North Carolina (+4,122), Louisiana (+3,132), New York (+2,740), California (+2,265), and Massachusetts (+1,474), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-2,924), Ohio (-2,652), Tennessee (-2,515), Missouri (-1,235), and Minnesota (-1,185).

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 126,641,867 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 01/29/2005 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

State Detail Prior Week
UI Claims Series 1967 to current