UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Jan. 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 343,000, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 354,000. The 4-week moving average was 347,500, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 350,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending Jan. 3, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 3 was 3,139,000, a decrease of 128,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,267,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,233,500, a decrease of 42,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,275,750.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 677,883 in the week ending Jan. 10, an increase of 128,233 from the previous week. There were 724,111 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.3 percent during the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 0.4 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 4,175,184, an increase of 456,916 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.5 percent and the volume was 4,486,870.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Michigan, Oregon, and Washington during the week ending Dec. 27.

53 states reported that 791,877 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending Dec. 27.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,891 in the week ending Jan. 3, an increase of 522 from the prior week. There were 1,650 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 27 from the preceding week.

There were 25,088 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Dec. 27, an increase of 4,388 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,397, an increase of 3,143 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Dec. 27 were in Alaska (6.7 percent), Oregon (4.8), Idaho (4.6), Wisconsin (4.6), Washington (4.5), Michigan (4.2), Puerto Rico (4.1), Pennsylvania (4.0), Arkansas (3.7), South Carolina (3.7), and Vermont (3.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 3 were in North Carolina (+20,872), New York (+20,490), South Carolina (+15,244), Tennessee (+10,669), and Georgia (+9,551), while the largest decreases were in Texas (-10,382), Illinois (-7,541), California (-5,688), Massachusetts (-5,377), and Pennsylvania (-5,095).

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 126,250,343 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 01/03/2004 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000