Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

          SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial
claims was 323,000, a decrease of 26,000 from the previous week’s revised
figure of 349,000. The 4-week moving average was 336,500, a decrease of 2,000
from the previous week’s revised average of 338,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent
for the week ending February 22, unchanged from the prior week’s revised rate.
The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during
the week ending February 22 was 2,907,000, a decrease of 8,000 from the preceding
week’s revised level of 2,915,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,927,750,
a decrease of 14,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 2,942,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 317,183 in the week
ending March 1, an increase of 5,702 from the previous week.
There were 335,680 initial claims in the comparable week in 2013.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent during the
week ending February 22, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week.
The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs
totaled 3,380,582, an increase of 52,160 from the preceding week. A year earlier,
the rate was 2.8 percent and the volume was 3,611,062.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week
ending February 15 was 3,399,445,
a decrease of 86,615
from the previous week.
There were 5,401,894 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2013.

No state was triggered “on” the Extended Benefits program during the week ending
February 15.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled
1,012 in the week ending February 22, a decrease of 166 from the prior week. There
were 1,753 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 77 from the preceding week.

There were 20,811 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for
the week ending February 15, a decrease of 1,497 from the previous week. Newly
discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 28,192, a decrease of 1,378 from
the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending February 15 were
in Alaska (5.7), Pennsylvania (4.2), New Jersey (4.1), Rhode Island (4.0), Montana
(3.7), California (3.6), Wisconsin (3.6), Connecticut (3.5), Illinois (3.5),
and Puerto Rico (3.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February 22 were in
Georgia (+7,383), Massachusetts (+3,502), South Carolina (+3,320), Connecticut (+1,376), and Alabama (+1,259),
while the largest decreases were in
California (-4,973), Missouri (-3,642), New York (-3,572), Michigan (-2,322), and Oregon (-1,810).

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DATA FOR REGULAR STATE PROGRAMS

INITIAL CLAIMS FILED IN FEDERAL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED)

PERSONS CLAIMING UI BENEFITS IN ALL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED)

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
130,938,360 as denominator.

³ –
Information on the EB program can be found here:
http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/extenben.asp
⁴ – 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
⁵
– 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
⁶ – Prior year total includes EUC claimants.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED
FEBRUARY 22, 2014

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

This information will be made available to sensory impaired
individuals upon request. Voice phone: 202-693-4676. TDD Message Phone:
1-800-326-2577. News releases from the U.S. Department of Labor are accessible
on the Internet at: http://www.dol.gov/ and  http://www.oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/claims_arch.asp.