News Release

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending January 19, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 330,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised figure of 335,000. The 4-week moving average was 351,750, a decrease of 8,250 from the previous week's revised average of 360,000.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending January 12, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 12 was 3,157,000, a decrease of 71,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 3,228,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,197,500, a decrease of 12,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,209,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 436,766 in the week ending January 19, a decrease of 119,944 from the previous week. There were 416,880 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.9 percent during the week ending January 12, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,690,615, a decrease of 177,080 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.2 percent and the volume was 4,069,651.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending January 5 was 5,659,760, a decrease of 214,076 from the previous week. There were 7,670,108 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2012.

Extended Benefits were not available in any state during the week ending January 5.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,354 in the week ending January 12, an increase of 578 from the prior week. There were 3,037 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 659 from the preceding week.

There were 22,166 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending January 5, a decrease of 571 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 40,567, an increase of 1,425 from the prior week.

States reported 1,693,797 persons claiming EUC (Emergency Unemployment Compensation) benefits for the week ending January 5, a decrease of 365,641 from the prior week. There were 2,922,533 persons claiming EUC in the comparable week in 2012. EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending January 5 were in Alaska (6.6), Pennsylvania (4.8), Puerto Rico (4.5), New Jersey (4.4), Oregon (4.3), Wisconsin (4.3), Connecticut (4.2), Michigan (4.2), Montana (4.2), and Rhode Island (4.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 12 were in Texas (+12,786), California (+10,232), Florida (+7,314), Indiana (+4,266), and New Jersey (+3,570), while the largest decreases were in New York (-27,487), Georgia (-7,520), North Carolina (-5,541), Alabama (-4,245), and Wisconsin (-3,183).

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 128,613,913 as denominator. 
3 - EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity. Tier-specific EUC data can be found here: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/persons.xls
4 - Information on the EB program can be found here: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/extenben.asp 
5 - Some states maintain additional benefit programs for those claimants who exhaust regular, extended and emergency benefits. Information on states that participate, 
and the extent of benefits paid, can be found starting on page 4-5 of this link: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2010/special.pdf 
6 - Information on STC/Worksharing can be found starting on page 4-9 of the following link: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/pdf/uilawcompar/2010/special.pdf 

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 1/12/2012

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