UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Feb. 12, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 302,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 304,000. The 4-week moving average was 311,750, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised average of 315,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending Feb. 5, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.2 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 5 was 2,717,000, a decrease of 14,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,731,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,737,500, an increase of 4,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,732,750.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 308,044 in the week ending Feb. 12, a decrease of 39,134 from the previous week. There were 341,634 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent during the week ending Feb. 5, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,221,980, a decrease of 74,108 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.0 percent and the volume was 3,776,188.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Jan. 29.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,442 in the week ending Feb. 5, a decrease of 9 from the prior week. There were 1,957 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 2 from the preceding week.

There were 20,317 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Jan. 29, a decrease of 1,596 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 27,364, a decrease of 747 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 29 were in Alaska (6.6 percent), Pennsylvania (4.5), Michigan (4.2), Idaho (4.0), Puerto Rico (3.8), Wisconsin (3.8), Massachusetts (3.7), New Jersey (3.7), Oregon (3.7), and Rhode Island (3.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Feb. 5 were in Michigan (+1,985), Minnesota (+1,982), Mississippi (+811), Georgia (+750), and New Jersey (+599), while the largest decreases were in North Carolina (-3,301), Louisiana (-2,657), New York (-2,335), Indiana (-1,907), and Ohio (-1,702).

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 126,641,867 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 02/05/2005 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

State Detail Prior Week
UI Claims Series 1967 to current