Calendar Year 2005 Seasonal Factors: Seasonal factors for CY 2005 and the revised historical series for CY 1999-2004 for both initial claims and continued claims will be made available on March 31, 2005, with the release of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 324,000, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 321,000. The 4-week moving average was 321,750, an increase of 3,500 from the previous week's revised average of 318,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.1 percent for the week ending March 12, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.1 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 12 was 2,673,000, an increase of 31,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,642,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,668,500, an increase of 3,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,665,250.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 288,962 in the week ending March 19, a decrease of 17,826 from the previous week. There were 304,462 initial claims in the comparable week in 2004.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.4 percent during the week ending March 12, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,095,669, an increase of 9,891 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,513,900.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending March 5.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 969 in the week ending March 12, a decrease of 77 from the prior week. There were 2,001 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 119 from the preceding week.

There were 18,025 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending March 5, a decrease of 276 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 26,292, a decrease of 188 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending March 5 were in Alaska (5.7 percent), Puerto Rico (4.4), Michigan (4.3), Pennsylvania (3.7), Wisconsin (3.7), New Jersey (3.6), Rhode Island (3.6), Massachusetts (3.5), Idaho (3.4), and Oregon (3.4).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 12 were in Texas (+2,999), Oregon (+2,397), Oklahoma (+2,007), Virginia (+1,106), and Alabama (+291), while the largest decreases were in New York (-11,539), Michigan (-4,115), Pennsylvania (-3,414), Minnesota (-1,772), and Connecticut (-1,611).

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 126,641,867 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 03/12/2005 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000