UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Aug. 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 425,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 435,000. The 4-week moving average was 440,250, a decrease of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average of 446,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending Aug. 16, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.5 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 16 was 3,423,000, an increase of 64,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,359,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,365,500, an increase of 36,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,329,250.  

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 2.994 million.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 341,781 in the week ending Aug.23, a decrease of 1,388 from the previous week. There were 266,179 initial claims in the comparable week in 2007.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending Aug. 16, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,169,957, an increase of 9,347 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.8 percent and the volume was 2,369,648.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska and Rhode Island during the week ending Aug. 9.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,061 in the week ending Aug. 16, a decrease of 90 from the prior week. There were 1,705 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 21 from the preceding week.

There were 13,624 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Aug. 9, a decrease of 505 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 21,383, an increase of 462 from the prior week.

States reported 980,695 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Aug. 9, a decrease of 313,633 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Aug. 9 were in Puerto Rico (4.9 percent), New Jersey (3.4), Michigan (3.3), Pennsylvania (3.3), Rhode Island (3.3), California (3.2), Massachusetts (3.2), Oregon (3.2), Nevada (3.1), and South Carolina (3.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Aug. 16 were in Florida (+932), Iowa (+657), Missouri (+567), Puerto Rico (+560), and Oklahoma (+403), while the largest decreases were in California (-7,862), Illinois (-3,546), Ohio (-3,410), Georgia (-2,903), and New York (-2,178).

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 133,690,617 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 08/16/2008 

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