UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending May 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 329,000, a decrease of 40,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 369,000. The 4-week moving average was 337,000, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 333,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending May 13, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.8 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 13 was 2,420,000, an increase of 38,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,382,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,406,000, a decrease of 5,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,411,250.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 277,648 in the week ending May 20, a decrease of 32,601 from the previous week. There were 276,761 initial claims in the comparable week in 2005.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent during the week ending May 13, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,243,441, an increase of 15,899 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9 percent and the volume was 2,398,134.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending May 6.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 907 in the week ending May 13, a decrease of 64 from the prior week. There were 1,934 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 439 from the preceding week.

There were 11,377 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending May 6, a decrease of 1,436 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 25,669, a decrease of 436 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 6 were in Alaska (4.2 percent), Michigan (3.1), Puerto Rico (2.9), Pennsylvania (2.6), New Jersey (2.5), Oregon (2.4), California (2.3), Massachusetts (2.2), Rhode Island (2.2), and Wisconsin (2.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 13 were in Puerto Rico (+26,578), Indiana (+2,951), North Carolina (+1,610), Illinois (+1,444), and Virginia (+1,424), while the largest decreases were in Iowa (-2,235), California (-1,974), Michigan (-1,893), New York (-908), and Pennsylvania (-740).

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 129,381,803 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 05/13/2006 

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