Unemployment weekly claims report indicates little improvement

In the week ending January 11, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 326,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 328,000. The 4-week moving average was 335,000, a decrease of 13,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 348,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending January 4, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemploymentduring the week ending January 4 was 3,030,000, an increase of 174,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 2,856,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,908,750, an increase of 38,250 from the preceding week’s revised average of 2,870,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 534,431 in the week ending January 11, an increase of 51,190 from the previous week. There were 556,621 initial claims in the comparable week in 2013.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.8 percent during the week ending January 4, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,638,564, an increase of 354,387 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.0 percent and the volume was 3,867,784.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 28 was 4,703,499, an increase of 508,309 from the previous week. There were 5,873,824 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2012.

No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending December 28.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,569 in the week ending January 4, an increase of 372 from the prior week. There were 1,741 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 533 from the preceding week.

There were 22,811 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending December 28, an increase of 2,103 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 30,676, an increase of 2,111 from the prior week.

States reported 1,350,663 persons claiming Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits for the week ending December 28, an increase of 63,626 from the prior week. There were 2,059,438 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 December 28 were in Alaska (6.2), New Jersey (4.0), Connecticut (3.8), Pennsylvania (3.6), Montana (3.5), Wisconsin (3.5), Oregon (3.4), California (3.2), Illinois (3.2), Idaho (3.1), Massachusetts (3.1), Michigan (3.1), Minnesota (3.1), New York (3.1), and Rhode Island (3.1).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending January 4 were in New York (+28,314), Georgia (+18,734), South Carolina (+9,632), Alabama (+6,782), and Texas (+6,638), while the largest decreases were in Michigan (-17,635), New Jersey (-6,882), Massachusetts (-5,485), Ohio (-5,482), and Iowa (-4,212).

FOOTNOTES