In the week ending December 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 370,000, a decrease of 25,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 395,000. The 4-week moving average was 408,000, an increase of 2,250 from the previous week’s revised average of 405,750.
The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.5 percent for the week ending November 24, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending November 24 was 3,205,000, a decrease of 100,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 3,305,000. The 4-week moving average was 3,309,000, an increase of 7,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 3,301,250.
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 498,619 in the week ending December 1, an increase of 139,678 from the previous week. There were 528,793 initial claims in the comparable week in 2011.
The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.6 percent during the week ending November 24, an increase of 0.4 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,301,200, an increase of 465,529 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 2.9 percent and the volume was 3,696,154.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending November 17 was 4,959,240, a decrease of 224,722 from the previous week. There were 6,575,150 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2011.
