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 1988-2002 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 23, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 394,000, an increase of 18,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 376,000. The 4-week moving average was 383,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 380,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent for the week ending March 16, 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 16  was 3,526,000, an increase of 83,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,443,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,450,750, an increase of 15,000 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,435,750.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 365,742 in the week ending  March 23, an increase of 13,987 from the previous week. There were 336,405 initial claims in the comparable week in 2001.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent during the week ending March 16, an increase of 0.1 percentage point  from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,184,821, an increase of 74,403 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.4 percent and the volume was 2,982,586.  

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending March 9.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 972 in the week ending March 16, an increase of 56 from the prior week. There were 974 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 107 from the preceding week.

There were 16,787 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending March 9, an increase of 8 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 16,054, an increase of 113 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 9 were in Alaska (6.1 percent), Puerto Rico (5.9), Oregon (5.1), Washington (5.1), Idaho (5.0), Wisconsin (4.4), Massachusetts (4.3), Michigan (4.3), Pennsylvania (4.3), California (4.0), and New Jersey (4.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 16 were in Michigan (+1,261), Mississippi (+678), Arkansas (+343), Washington (+332), and New Mexico (+158), while the largest decreases were in California (-4,679), Pennsylvania (-2,829), New York (-2,341), Massachusetts (-2,325), and Ohio (-2,086).

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 03/16/2002

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