News Release

Calendar Year 2003 Seasonal Factors:  Seasonal factors for CY 2003 and the revised historical series for CY 1988-2002 for both initial claims and continued claims will be made available on April 10, 2003, with the release of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report for the week ending April 5, 2003.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 29, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 445,000, an increase of 38,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 407,000. The 4-week moving average was 426,250, an increase of 2,500 from the previous week's revised average of 423,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8 percent for the week ending March 22, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.8 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 22 was 3,608,000, an increase of 107,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,501,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,529,500, an increase of 31,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,498,250.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 370,004 in the week ending March 29, an increase of 8,255 from the previous week. There were 387,526 initial claims in the comparable week in 2002.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent during the week ending March 22, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,975,650, a decrease of 95,923 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.1 percent and the volume was 3,974,765.

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

53 states reported that 760,977 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending March 15.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 916 in the week ending March 22, a decrease of 159 from the prior week. There were 1,181 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 53 from the preceding week.

There were 16,873 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending March 15, a decrease of 1,729 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 19,222, a decrease of 448 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 15 were in Alaska (6.8 percent), Oregon (5.1), Puerto Rico (5.1), Pennsylvania (5.0), Idaho (4.7), Washington (4.5), Wisconsin (4.5), Michigan (4.3), California (4.2), Massachusetts (4.2), and Rhode Island (4.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 22 were in Kansas (+1,525), Indiana (+771), California (+615), Virginia (+521), and Wyoming (+210), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-7,885), Texas (-3,516), North Carolina (-2,497), Illinois (-1,582), and Ohio (-1,280).

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.
³ - Prior year level based on the reports of 31 states.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 03/22/2003 

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