US seasonally adjusted initial claims for jobless benefits climbs 10,000 in week ended Dec. 14 from previous week's revised average to 379,000; four-week average rises 13,250 to 343,500: Dept. of Labor

Cindy Allen

WASHINGTON , December 19, 2013 (press release) – In the week ending December 14, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 379,000, an increase of 10,000 from the previous week's figure of 369,000. The 4-week moving average was 343,500, an increase of 13,250 from the previous week's revised average of 330,250. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent for the week ending December 7, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending December 7 was 2,884,000, an increase of 94,000 from the preceding week's revised level of 2,790,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,799,000, an increase of 4,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 2,794,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 414,002 in the week ending December 14, a decrease of 48,196 from the previous week. There were 401,429 initial claims in the comparable week in 2012.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.2 percent during the week ending December 7, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 2,878,730, a decrease of 81,111 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.5 percent and the volume was 3,244,564.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 30 was 4,412,144, an increase of 606,051 from the previous week. There were 5,402,429 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 November 30.

Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,175 in the week ending December 7, an increase of 667 from the prior week. There were 2,356 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 970 from the preceding week.

There were 22,439 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending November 30, an increase of 4,215 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 32,937, an increase of 3,837 from the prior week.

States reported 1,374,031 persons claiming Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) benefits for the week ending November 30, an increase of 125,099 from the prior week. There were 2,096,545 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 7 were in Alaska (6.0), Puerto Rico (3.6), New Jersey (3.5), California (3.4), Connecticut (3.1), Pennsylvania (3.1), West Virginia (3.0), Wisconsin (3.0), Montana (2.9), and Oregon (2.9).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending December 7 were in California (+21,876), New York (+14,322), Pennsylvania (+14,004), Georgia (+11,582), and Texas (+9,761), while the largest decreases were in Ohio (-1,095), Kentucky (-838), Vermont (-400), Massachusetts (-317), and New Mexico (-176).

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 130,396,096 as denominator.
³ - EUC weekly claims include first, second, third, and fourth tier activity. Tier-specific EUC data can be found here: http://ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/persons.xls
⁴ - Information on the EB program can be found here: http://www.ows.doleta.gov/unemploy/extenben.asp
⁵ - 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
⁶ - 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

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED DECEMBER 7, 2013

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 

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