Note: This week's release reflects the annual revision to the weekly unemployment claims seasonal adjustment factors. The historical factors from 1999 forward have been revised. See attachment for calendar year 2005 factors.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 350,000, an increase of 20,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 330,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,000, an increase of 8,500 from the previous week's revised average of 327,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending March 19, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 19 was 2,608,000, a decrease of 66,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,674,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,656,250, a decrease of 14,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,671,000.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 290,073 in the week ending March 26, a decrease of 380 from the previous week. There were 296,776 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending March 19, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,926,383, a decrease of 164,357 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.7 percent and the volume was 3,385,174.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska during the week ending March 12.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 884 in the week ending March 19, a decrease of 85 from the prior week. There were 1,886 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 118 from the preceding week.

There were 16,780 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending March 12, a decrease of 1,246 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,049, a decrease of 245 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 12 were in Alaska (6.1 percent), Michigan (4.3), Pennsylvania (4.2), Puerto Rico (4.2), New Jersey (3.6), Wisconsin (3.6), Massachusetts (3.5), Rhode Island (3.5), Idaho (3.2), Illinois (3.2), and Oregon (3.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 19 were in Wisconsin (+2,735), Texas (+2,171), Tennessee (+1,502), Ohio (+1,308), and Missouri (+919), while the largest decreases were in California (-4,927), Oregon (-3,363), North Carolina (-3,086), Michigan (-2,666), and Oklahoma
(-1,608).

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 03/19/2005 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

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