For the week ending August 3, the seasonally adjusted advance number of initial claims was 233,000, down 17,000 from the prior week’s revised level. The prior week’s level was revised up 1,000 from 249,000 to 250,000. The 4-week moving average was 240,750, up 2,500 from the prior week’s revised average. The prior week’s average was revised up 250 from 238,000 to 238,250.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent for the week ending July 27, unchanged from the prior week’s unadjusted rate. The seasonally adjusted advance number of insured unemployment claims for the week ending July 27 was 1,875,000, up 6,000 from the prior week’s revised level. This is the highest level of insured unemployment since November 27, 2021, when it was 1,878,000. The previous week’s level was revised down 8,000 from 1,877,000 to 1,869,000.
The four-week moving average was 1,862,000, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week’s revised average. This is the highest level of this average since November 27, 2021, when it was 1,928,000. The previous week’s average was revised down 2,000 from 1,857,000 to 1,855,000. Unadjusted data: The total number of actual initial claims filed under state programs, unadjusted, was 203,054 in the week ending August 3, down 13,589 (or -6.3 percent) from the previous week. Seasonal factors were projecting an increase of 1,251 (or 0.6 percent) from the previous week. There were 227,917 initial claims in the comparable week in 2023.
The unadjusted insured unemployment rate filed was 1.3 percent during the week ending July 27, unchanged from the previous week. Total unadjusted insured unemployment filed in state programs was 1,910,894, down 23,512 (or -1.2 percent) from the previous week. Seasonal factors were projecting a decrease of 29,904 (or -1.5 percent) from the previous week.
Total Initial Claims for Unemployment Insurance Benefits
The total number of continuing weeks of benefits claimed in all programs for the week ending July 20 was 1,960,489, up 21,649 from the previous week. There were 1,852,160 weekly claims filed for benefits across all programs in the comparable week in 2023. No state was “on” the extended benefits program during the week ending July 20. Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 312 in the week ending July 27, down 75 from the previous week.
There were 391 initial claims filed by recently discharged veterans, up 16 from the previous week. There were 4,769 continuing weeks filed by former federal civilian employees in the week ending July 20, up 110 from the previous week. The total number of recently discharged veterans claiming benefits was 4,521, down 35 from the previous week.
The highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending July 20 were in New Jersey (2.8), Rhode Island (2.6), Puerto Rico (2.4), California (2.3), Minnesota (2.0), Pennsylvania (1.9), Connecticut (1.8), Illinois (1.7), Massachusetts (1.7), New York (1.7), and Washington (1.7). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 27 were in Michigan (+4,027), Missouri (+3,410), Massachusetts (+2,127), Virginia (+637), and Minnesota (+487), while the largest decreases were in Texas (-6,607), New York (-2,396), Ohio (-2,377), Florida (-1,587), and Tennessee (-1,488). Seasonally adjusted data, NSA – Non-seasonally adjusted data Continuous weeks claimed represent all weeks of benefits claimed during the reported week, and do not represent weeks claimed by unique individuals. 1. Prior year is comparable to most recent data. 2. Most recent week used 151,110,325 covered jobs as denominator. 3. Information about the EB program can be found here: EB Program Information 4. Some states maintain supplemental benefit programs for claimants who exhaust their regular benefits.
Press Release Presents Unemployment Insurance Claims
This press release presents weekly unemployment insurance claims reported by each state’s Unemployment Insurance Program offices. These claims can be used to monitor workload, evaluate state program operations, and assess labor market conditions. States initially report claims taken by the state responsible for benefit payments directly, regardless of the residence of the claimant filing the claim.
These are the basis for the advance initial claims and continuing claims reported each week. These data come from ETA 538, Weekly Advance Initial and Continuing Claims Report. Initial and continuing claims are revised the following week based on a second report from states that reflects claimants by state of residence. These data come from ETA 539, Weekly Claims and Extended Claims Data Report. A. Initial Claims: An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after separation from an employer.
The claimant requests a determination of basic eligibility for the Unemployment Insurance program. When an initial claim is filed with a state, certain programming activities occur and these activities result in a count of activities including the count of initial claims. The count of initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States is a leading economic indicator because it indicates emerging labor market conditions in the country. However, these are weekly administrative data that are difficult to seasonally adjust, making the series subject to some volatility.
b. Continuing weeks claimed An individual who has already filed an initial claim and who has experienced a week of unemployment then files a continuing claim to claim benefits for that week of unemployment. On a weekly basis, continuing claims are also referred to as insured unemployment, as continuing claims reflect a good approximation of the number of currently insured unemployed workers who are applying for unemployment insurance benefits.
Claims Reporting
Filed claims cannot be directly compared to claims reported in previous weeks. Claims filed are reported by the state responsible for paying unemployment benefits, while claims reported in previous weeks reflect claimants by state of residence. In addition, claims reported as “work participation equivalent” in the previous week are added to claims filed as a proxy for “work participation equivalent” activity in the current week.
