UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending July 24, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 345,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 341,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,250, a decrease of 1,000 from the previous week's revised average of 337,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending July 17, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 2.2 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending July 17 was 2,960,000, an increase of 174,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,786,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,889,750, an increase of 750 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,889,000.
 

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 314,797 in the week ending July 24, a decrease of 79,319 from the previous week. There were 348,382 initial claims in the comparable week in 2003.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending July 17, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,950,924, an increase of 58,979 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,541,796.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending July 10.

6,217 individuals filed continued claims under the Federal Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation (TEUC) program during the week ending July 10.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,985 in the week ending July 17, a decrease of 55 from the prior week. There were 2,316 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 324 from the preceding week.

There were 16,924 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending July 10, an increase of 2,680 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 25,743, an increase of 852 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 10 were in Puerto Rico (4.2 percent), Alaska (3.6), New Jersey (3.3), Pennsylvania (3.3), Oregon (3.2), Rhode Island (3.1), Arkansas (2.9), Massachusetts (2.9), Michigan (2.9), California (2.8), Connecticut (2.8), and Wisconsin (2.8).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 17 were in Tennessee (+7,142), Missouri (+3,743), North Carolina (+3,529), South Carolina (+2,911), and Alabama (+2,892), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-13,283), New York (-12,485), Kentucky (-10,909), Pennsylvania (-5,169), and Wisconsin (-4,934).

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 126,088,081 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 07/17/2004 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000