Washington, DC…COVID-19 Impact The COVID-19 virus continues to impact the number of initial claims and insured unemployment. This report includes information on claimants filing Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation claims. In the week ending May 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 1,877,000, a decrease of 249,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised up by 3,000 from 2,123,000 to 2,126,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,284,000, a decrease of 324,750 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised up by 750 from 2,608,000 to 2,608,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 14.8 percent for the week ending May 23, an increase of 0.5 percentage point from the previous week’s revised rate. The previous week’s rate was revised down by 0.2 from 14.5 to 14.3 percent. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending May 23 was 21,487,000, an increase of 649,000 from the previous week’s revised level. The previous week’s level was revised down by 214,000 from 21,052,000 to 20,838,000. The 4-week moving average was 22,446,250, a decrease of 222,500 from the previous week’s revised average. The previous week’s average was revised down by 53,500 from 22,722,250 to 22,668,750.

UNADJUSTED DATA
The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 1,603,000 in the week ending May 30, a decrease of 314,604 (or -16.4 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 102,045 (or -5.3 percent) from the previous week. There were 189,577 initial claims in the comparable week in 2019. In addition, for the week ending May 30, 36 states reported 623,073 initial claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 13.2 percent during the week ending May 23, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 19,295,200, an increase of 437,072 (or 2.3 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 145,864 (or -0.8 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 1.1 percent and the volume was 1,521,741.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending May 16 was 29,965,415, a decrease of 991,744 from the previous week. There were 1,534,449 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019. Extended Benefits were available in 22 states during the week ending May 16. Those states included Alaska, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia. Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 2,053 in the week ending May 23, an increase of 229 from the prior week. There were 1,414 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 201 from the preceding week.