UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending May 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 293,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 298,000. The 4-week moving average was 305,500, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised average of 317,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending May 5, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 5 was 2,473,000, a decrease of 78,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,551,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,525,500, a decrease of 14,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,539,500.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 256,289 in the week ending May 12, a decrease of 18,420 from the previous week. There were 288,972 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent during the week ending May 5, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,292,918, a decrease of 158,528 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7 percent and the volume was 2,227,582.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending April 28.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 845 in the week ending May 5, an increase of 75 from the prior week. There were 1,579 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 152 from the preceding week.

There were 13,033 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending April 28, an increase of 1,044 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 21,845, a decrease of 368 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 28 were in Alaska (4.3 percent), Michigan (3.4), Puerto Rico (3.2), Pennsylvania (2.9), New Jersey (2.8), Vermont (2.7), Rhode Island (2.6), Wisconsin (2.6), California (2.5), and Oregon (2.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 5 were in Kentucky (+4,053), Kansas (+1,764), Tennessee (+1,151), Missouri (+1,099), and Texas (+1,040), while the largest decreases were in New Jersey (-1,601), Connecticut (-1,593), California (-729), New York (-676), and Ohio (-501).

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 131,660,675 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 05/05/2007 

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