UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Feb. 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 277,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 273,000. The 4-week moving average was 276,500, a decrease of 7,750 from the previous week's unrevised average of 284,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0 percent for the week ending Jan. 28, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 28 was 2,557,000, an increase of 60,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,497,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,538,750, a decrease of 33,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,572,500.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 320,001 in the week ending Feb. 4, an increase of 1,433 from the previous week. There were 347,391 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending Jan. 28, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,081,639, an increase of 29,889 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.6 percent and the volume was 3,296,052.

Extended benefits were available in Louisiana during the week ending Jan. 21.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,479 in the week ending Jan. 28, an increase of 240 from the prior week. There were 2,296 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 74 from the preceding week.

There were 21,236 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Jan. 21, an increase of 859 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 29,892, an increase of 632 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 21 were in Alaska (5.8 percent), Puerto Rico (5.0), Michigan (4.8), Rhode Island (3.7), Wisconsin (3.7), Mississippi (3.5), Pennsylvania (3.5), New Jersey (3.3), Oregon (3.3), Idaho (3.2), Massachusetts (3.2), and Vermont (3.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 28 were in Ohio (+2,760), Georgia (+2,634), New York (+1,391), South Carolina (+1,349), and Louisiana (+419), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-4,503), Texas (-2,052), Virginia (-1,155), Oregon (-988), and California (-867).

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DATA FOR REGULAR STATE PROGRAMS

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 128,767,336 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 01/28/2006 

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