U.S. unemployment insurance claims falls 20,000 to 368,000

U.S. unemployment insurance claims falls 20,000 to 368,000

2011-03-03 21:50:16 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the U.S. dropped to 368,000 in the week ending February 26, a decrease of 20,000 compared to the previous week figure of 388,000, the U.S. Labor Department said on Thursday.

The Labor Department (DOL) report also showed that the 4-week moving average was 388,500, a decrease of 12,750 from the previous week's revised average of 401,250.

In addition, the DOL report revealed that advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0 percent for the week ending February 19, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the previous week's revised rate of 3.1 percent.

The report showed that 3,774,000 workers represented the advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment, a decrease of 59,000, during the week ending February 19. The number of initial claims under state programs totaled 351,076, a decrease of 30,029.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all federal and state programs for the week ending February 12 was 9,236,041. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs was 4,325,502, a decrease of 262,110 from the previous week.

Initial claims for UI benefits by former Federal civilian employees totaled 1,793 in the week ending February 19, a decrease of 178 from the prior week. There were 2,296 initial claims by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 56 from the preceding week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending February 12 were in Alaska (7.0 percent), Montana (5.5), Pennsylvania (5.5), and Idaho (5.3). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending February19 were in Illinois (+530), Oregon (+339), Tennessee (+225), and Alaska (+191).

On the other hand, the largest decreases were in New York (-4,270), Pennsylvania (-3,842), Wisconsin (-3,163), and Kentucky (-2,641). In addition, there were extended benefits available in 36 states.

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