UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Feb. 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 310,000, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 311,000. The 4-week moving average was 307,000, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week's revised average of 308,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending Feb. 19, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 19 was 2,672,000, an increase of 12,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,660,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,693,750, a decrease of 4,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,698,500.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 290,241 in the week ending Feb. 26, a decrease of 14,203 from the previous week. There were 342,140 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent during the week ending Feb. 19, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,105,241, a decrease of 134,595 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.0 percent and the volume was 3,738,056.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Feb. 12.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 975 in the week ending Feb. 19, a decrease of 206 from the prior week. There were 1,756 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 73 from the preceding week.

There were 19,304 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Feb. 12, a decrease of 1,227 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,995, a decrease of 193 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Feb. 12 were in Alaska (6.5 percent), Michigan (4.3), Pennsylvania (4.3), Idaho (3.8), Rhode Island (3.8), Wisconsin (3.8), New Jersey (3.7), Massachusetts (3.6), Oregon (3.6), and Puerto Rico (3.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 19 were in Kentucky (+3,181), Illinois (+2,915), New Jersey (+2,074), Missouri (+1,753), and California (+1,321), while the largest decreases were in North Carolina (-2,734), New York (-1,995), Michigan (-1,618), South Carolina (-1,583), and Texas (-1,552).

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 02/19/2005 

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