News Release

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 386,000, a decrease of 29,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 415,000. The 4-week moving average was 419,250, a decrease of 5,500 from the previous week's revised average of 424,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8 percent for the week ending July 12, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 12 was 3,605,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,629,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,685,500, a decrease of 27,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,713,250.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 423,972 in the week ending July 19, a decrease of 128,072 from the previous week. There were 394,586 initial claims in the comparable week in 2002.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent during the week ending July 12, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,720,738, an increase of 106,457 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,589,337.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending July 5.

53 states reported that 854,034 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending July 5.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,536 in the week ending July 12, an increase of 226 from the prior week. There were 1,466 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 302 from the preceding week.

There were 15,906 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 5, an increase of 917 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 16,753, an increase of 389 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 5 were in Puerto Rico (5.8 percent), Oregon (4.6), Alaska (4.0), Pennsylvania (4.0), Massachusetts (3.8), Washington (3.8), Connecticut (3.6), New Jersey (3.6), South Carolina (3.6), Arkansas (3.5), California (3.5), and Wisconsin (3.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 12 were in North Carolina (+15,474), South Carolina (+13,415), Georgia (+9,012), Tennessee (+8,558), and Alabama (+7,904), while the largest decreases were in Wisconsin (-4,471), Massachusetts (-3,956), Texas (-3,452), Iowa (-3,205), and New Jersey (-3,037).

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 126,541,290 as denominator.
³ - Prior year level based on the reports of 51 states.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 07/12/2003 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000