News Release

ETA Press Release:
Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report

New Seasonal Adjustment Procedure:  Effective with the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the  week ending April 6, 2002, the seasonally adjusted initial and continued claims estimates will be developed using a new procedure for seasonal adjustment. The new procedure is more responsive in depicting changes in seasonal patterns, and will result in a less volatile series. Seasonal factors for 2002 based on the new adjustment methodology and resulting revised historical series for 1988-2001 for both initial and continued claims will be available on April 11, 2002.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 371,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 383,000. The 4-week moving average was 379,000, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 376,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent for the week ending March 9, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.7 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 9  was 3,465,000, an increase of 11,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,454,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,441,750, an increase of 9,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,432,000.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 347,099 in the week ending  March 16, a decrease of 38,940 from the previous week. There were 353,649 initial claims in the comparable week in 2001.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.2 percent during the week ending March 9, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point  from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,137,347, a decrease of 124,847 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.3 percent and the volume was 2,970,875.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending March 2.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 913 in the week ending March 9, a decrease of 66 from the prior week. There were 1,078 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 31 from the preceding week.

There were 16,749 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending March 2, a decrease of 964 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 16,120, a decrease of 392 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 2 were in Alaska (6.8 percent), Puerto Rico (5.8), Washington (5.2), Idaho (5.1), Oregon (5.1), Massachusetts (4.6), Pennsylvania (4.6), Michigan (4.5), Wisconsin (4.5), and California (4.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 9 were in Texas (+3,093), North Carolina (+2,057), Florida (+1,571), Massachusetts (+1,557), and Tennessee (+1,385), while the largest decreases were in New York (-7,634), New Jersey (-1,888), Washington (-1,145), Kansas (-809), and Nebraska (-672).

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 128,673,493 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 03/09/2002

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000

This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-693-3900. TDD Message Phone: 1-800-326-2577. 

News releases from the U.S. Department of Labor are accessible on the Internet at: http://www.dol.gov and  http://www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov