UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending April 28, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 305,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 326,000. The 4-week moving average was 328,750, a decrease of 4,500 from the previous week's revised average of 333,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending April 21, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.0 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending April 21 was 2,495,000, a decrease of 93,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,588,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,534,000, an increase of 1,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,532,500.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 266,666 in the week ending April 28, a decrease of 37,795 from the previous week. There were 279,715 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent during the week ending April 21, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,452,408, a decrease of 181,964 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.9 percent and the volume was 2,404,269.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending April 14.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 860 in the week ending April 21, a decrease of 131 from the prior week. There were 1,486 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 108 from the preceding week.

There were 15,011 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending April 14, an increase of 2,268 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 23,077, an increase of 206 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending April 14 were in Alaska (4.6 percent), Michigan (3.9), Pennsylvania (3.2), Wisconsin (3.1), New Jersey (3.0), Puerto Rico (3.0), Vermont (2.9), Rhode Island (2.8), California (2.6), Massachusetts (2.6), Minnesota (2.6), and Oregon (2.6).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending April 21 were in Massachusetts (+5,564), Michigan (+3,451), Connecticut (+2,783), North Carolina (+2,675), and Louisiana (+1,448), while the largest decreases were in New York (-13,569), New Jersey (-3,225), Wisconsin (-3,153), Ohio (-2,359), and Indiana (-1,805).

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 131,660,675 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 04/21/2007 

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