UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending Aug. 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 444,000, an increase of 15,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 429,000. The 4-week moving average was 438,000, a decrease of 3,250 from the previous week's revised average of 441,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent for the week ending Aug. 23, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.6 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Aug. 23 was 3,435,000, an increase of 6,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,429,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,400,250, an increase of 33,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,367,000.  

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 3.006 million.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 353,501 in the week ending Aug. 30, an increase of 8,374 from the previous week. There were 257,454 initial claims in the comparable week in 2007.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending Aug. 23, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,125,951, a decrease of 49,055 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 1.8 percent and the volume was 2,353,210.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska and Rhode Island during the week ending Aug. 16.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,020 in the week ending Aug. 23, a decrease of 41 from the prior week. There were 1,737 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 32 from the preceding week.

There were 14,263 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Aug. 16, an increase of 639 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 21,621, an increase of 238 from the prior week.

States reported 1,394,749 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Aug. 16, a decrease of 384,050 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Aug. 16 were in Puerto Rico (5.3 percent), Michigan (3.6), New Jersey (3.5), Rhode Island (3.4), California (3.3), Pennsylvania (3.3), Oregon (3.2), Connecticut (3.1), Nevada (3.1), and South Carolina (3.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Aug. 23 were in Texas (+2,072), Wisconsin (+1,883), New York (+1,488), Alabama (+1,168), and Michigan (+874), while the largest decreases were in Georgia (-2,229), Pennsylvania (-1,632), North Carolina (-1,551), Iowa (-1,485), and Missouri
(-1,230).

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 08/23/2008 

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