UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Sept. 27, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 497,000, an increase of 1,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 496,000. It is estimated that the effects of Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana and the effects of Hurricane Ike in Texas added approximately 45,000 claims to the total. The 4-week moving average was 474,000, an increase of 11,500 from the previous week's unrevised average of 462,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.7 percent for the week ending Sept. 20, unchanged from the prior week's revised rate of 2.7 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Sept. 20 was 3,591,000, an increase of 48,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,543,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,528,500, an increase of 46,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,481,750.  

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 3.056 million.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 390,837 in the week ending Sept. 27, a decrease of 7,233 from the previous week. There were 255,431 initial claims in the comparable week in 2007.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending Sept. 20, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,009,578, a decrease of 5,296 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.6 percent and the volume was 2,140,701.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska and Rhode Island during the week ending Sept. 13.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,088 in the week ending Sept. 20, an increase of 11 from the prior week. There were 1,639 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 190 from the preceding week.

There were 13,729 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Sept. 13, an increase of 342 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 22,120, an increase of 199 from the prior week.

States reported 1,431,754 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Sept. 13, an increase of 374,830 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Sept. 13 were in Puerto Rico (5.2 percent), Michigan (3.3), California (3.2), New Jersey (3.2), Oregon (3.2), Nevada (3.1), Pennsylvania (3.0), South Carolina (3.0), Rhode Island (2.8), and Arkansas (2.7).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Sept. 20 were in Texas (+22,235), Louisiana (+9,671), Washington (+2,407), Michigan (+1,640), and Ohio (+1,426), while the largest decreases were in Kansas (-3,223), South Carolina (-2,730), North Carolina (-2,617), New York (-1,973), and Tennessee (-1,593).

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 133,690,617 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 09/20/2008 

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