UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 3, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 328,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 338,000. The 4-week moving average was 339,000, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 335,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending Feb. 24, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.0 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 24 was 2,526,000, a decrease of 98,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,624,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,552,500, an increase of 9,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,543,250.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 318,004 in the week ending March 3, an increase of 18,951 from the previous week. There were 301,867 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending Feb. 24, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,010,865, a decrease of 64,153 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.3 percent and the volume was 2,975,296.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Feb. 17.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 970 in the week ending Feb. 24, an increase of 82 from the prior week. There were 1,567 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 17 from the preceding week.

There were 18,962 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Feb. 17, an increase of 2,756 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 24,418, an increase of 259 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Feb. 17 were in Alaska (5.4 percent), Michigan (4.7), Pennsylvania (4.3), Wisconsin (3.9), Rhode Island (3.7), New Jersey (3.5), Massachusetts (3.3), Puerto Rico (3.3), West Virginia (3.3), Montana (3.2), and Vermont (3.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 24 were in Massachusetts (+4,621), New Jersey (+3,449), Connecticut (+2,992), Michigan (+2,063), and Indiana (+1,486), while the largest decreases were in California (-4,380), Wisconsin (-3,180), Pennsylvania (-2,790), New York (-1,991), and Ohio (-1,622).

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 131,188,612 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 02/24/2007 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

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