News Release

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UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 430,000, an increase of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 418,000. The 4-week moving average was 408,750, an increase of 8,750 from the previous week's revised average of 400,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8 percent for the week ending Feb. 22, an increase of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate of 2.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 22 was 3,516,000, an increase of 180,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,336,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,391,000, an increase of 44,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,346,500.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 424,055 in the week ending March 1, an increase of 36,334 from the previous week. There were 385,272 initial claims in the comparable week in 2002.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent during the week ending Feb. 22, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,233,714, an increase of 151,027 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.3 percent and the volume was 4,234,460.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending Feb. 15.

53 states reported that 689,030 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending Feb. 15.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 968 in the week ending Feb. 22, a decrease of 275 from the prior week. There were 1,072 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 137 from the preceding week.

There were 18,294 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Feb. 15, a decrease of 2,653 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 19,824, a decrease of 967 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Feb. 15 were in Alaska (7.1 percent), Oregon (5.1), Pennsylvania (5.1), Idaho (5.0), Wisconsin (4.7), Michigan (4.6), Washington (4.6), Massachusetts (4.1), Puerto Rico (4.1), Connecticut (4.0), Montana (4.0), and Rhode Island (4.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 22 were in Pennsylvania (+5,891), Massachusetts (+4,871), Kansas (+2,172), New Jersey (+1,608), and Connecticut (+1,560), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-9,515), Georgia (-3,144), North Carolina (-2,724), Wisconsin (-1,778), and Texas (-1,324).

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 126,949,730 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 02/22/2003 

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: 202-693-4676. 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.ows.doleta.gov