UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS REPORT

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA

In the week ending March 10, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 318,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 330,000. The 4-week moving average was 329,250, a decrease of 10,250 from the previous week's revised average of 339,500.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.0 percent for the week ending March 3, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending March 3 was 2,576,000, an increase of 48,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,528,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,558,500, an increase of 5,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,553,000.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 296,970 in the week ending March 10, a decrease of 23,172 from the previous week. There were 294,764 initial claims in the comparable week in 2006.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent during the week ending March 3, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,024,591, an increase of 11,308 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.2 percent and the volume was 2,860,513.

Extended benefits were not available in any state during the week ending Feb. 24.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 973 in the week ending March 3, an increase of 2 from the prior week. There were 1,810 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 238 from the preceding week.

There were 15,619 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending Feb. 24, a decrease of 3,349 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 24,163, a decrease of 258 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Feb. 24 were in Alaska (4.5 percent), Michigan (4.3), Rhode Island (4.0), Pennsylvania (3.8), Wisconsin (3.8), Puerto Rico (3.6), Massachusetts (3.5), New Jersey (3.5), Connecticut (3.3), Illinois (3.2), and Vermont (3.2).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending March 3 were in New York (+10,768), California (+6,396), Michigan (+3,590), Kentucky (+3,404), and Kansas (+1,827), while the largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-4,665), Pennsylvania (-2,759), Indiana (-2,086), North Carolina
(-2,046), and New Jersey (-1,967).

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 131,188,612 as denominator.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED 03/03/2007 

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000