Calendar Year 2009 Seasonal Factors: Seasonal factors for CY 2009 and the revised historical series for CY 2004-2008 for both initial claims and continued claims will be made available on line on March 26, 2009, with the release of the Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report.

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 646,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 658,000. The 4-week moving average was 654,750, an increase of 3,750 from the previous week's revised average of 651,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the week ending March 7, an increase of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week's revised rate of 3.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 7 was 5,473,000, an increase of 185,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 5,288,000. The 4-week moving average was 5,251,250, an increase of 118,750 from the preceding week's revised average of 5,132,500.  

The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 4.577 million.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 594,121 in the week ending March 14, a decrease of 58,515 from the previous week. There were 335,917 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.7 percent during the week ending March 7, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 6,332,272, a decrease of 29,082 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.5 percent and the volume was 3,297,238.

Extended benefits were available in Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin during the week ending Feb. 28.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,197 in the week ending March 7, an increase of 18 from the prior week. There were 2,076 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 127 from the preceding week.

There were 19,905 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Feb. 28, an increase of 753 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 28,836, an increase of 114 from the prior week.

States reported 1,488,914 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending Feb. 28, an increase of 74,475 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Feb. 28 were in Michigan (8.0 percent), Oregon (7.7), Idaho (7.3), Wisconsin (6.9), Pennsylvania (6.8), Puerto Rico (6.6), Rhode Island (6.4), Nevada (6.2), Montana (6.1), and Alaska (6.0).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 7 were in Indiana (+5,603), Pennsylvania (+4,702), Texas (+4,007), Florida (+3,894), and Michigan (+2,276), while the largest decreases were in New York (-11,218), Connecticut (-2,254), Tennessee (-2,153), California (-1,277), and Oregon (-1,139).

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 133,886,830 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 03/07/2009 

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