UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending May 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 310,000, a decrease of 4,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 314,000. The 4-week moving average was 304,500, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 303,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending May 19, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 19 was 2,472,000, a decrease of 52,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,524,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,504,500, a decrease of 4,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,509,000.  

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 273,685 in the week ending May 26, an increase of 3,300 from the previous week. There were 292,714 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.7 percent during the week ending May 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 2,239,440, a decrease of 90,226 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.7 percent and the volume was 2,197,167.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending May 12.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 868 in the week ending May 19, an increase of 98 from the prior week. There were 1,568 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 36 from the preceding week.

There were 11,964 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending May 12, an increase of 1,094 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 21,794, an increase of 41 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 12 were in Alaska (3.7 percent), Puerto Rico (3.2), Michigan (3.0), Pennsylvania (2.7), New Jersey (2.6), Oregon (2.5), Arkansas (2.4), California (2.4), Rhode Island (2.4), Massachusetts (2.3), and Wisconsin (2.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 19 were in North Carolina (+3,858), Missouri (+3,106), Arkansas (+1,301), South Carolina (+1,126), and Ohio (+833), while the largest decreases were in Oregon (-1,016), Wisconsin (-720), Tennessee (-595), Washington (-266), and Mississippi (-192).

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 05/19/2007 

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