U.S. weekly unemployment claims edge up as insured jobless rate holds at 1.2%

In these weekly reports, “initial claims” and “insured unemployment” are related but different:

• Initial claims = people who file a new claim for UI benefits that week after losing a job (a flow into the system, measuring new layoffs or separations).
• Insured unemployment (also called continued claims or weeks claimed) = the number of people already on UI who are continuing to claim benefits for a given week (the stock of people currently receiving regular UI).

Someone appears in initial claims only when they first apply; if they keep certifying each week, they then show up in insured unemployment, not as new initial claims.

The insured unemployment rate (IUR) is:

• Formula (conceptually): IUR = (number of insured unemployed / number of workers in jobs covered by UI) × 100.
• DOL’s technical definition: they compute it by dividing the average insured unemployed over the current 13 weeks by average covered employment in the first four of the last six completed calendar quarters. This smoothing makes the rate less jumpy week to week.

An IUR of 1.2% means that roughly 1.2% of workers who are in jobs covered by state UI are getting regular UI benefits in that reference week. It is usually much lower than the headline unemployment rate because:

• not all unemployed workers worked in UI‑covered jobs,
• many unemployed don’t qualify, have exhausted benefits, or don’t apply.

Extended Benefits (EB) are extra weeks of unemployment insurance provided only when unemployment is high and only to people who have already exhausted their regular state UI benefits.

A state is “triggered on” EB when its unemployment measures cross legal thresholds, most commonly:

• Mandatory IUR trigger: the 13‑week average insured unemployment rate (IUR) is at least 5.0% and at least 120% of the same 13‑week period’s rates in each of the prior two years; or
• Optional triggers in state law based on a higher IUR (e.g., ≥6.0%) or on the total unemployment rate (TUR).

When a trigger turns on, eligible claimants can generally receive up to 13 additional weeks of EB (up to 20 weeks in states using optional TUR triggers).

In this report period, no state was triggered on EB because their 13‑week IURs and/or TURs were below these trigger thresholds, so the statutory conditions for “high unemployment” under the EB law were not met.

Seasonal adjustment is a statistical process that removes predictable seasonal patterns (like holiday retail hiring, school-year cycles, and winter construction slowdowns) so analysts can see the underlying trend.

How it works in these UI data:

• States report raw (unadjusted) weekly initial and continued claims.
• BLS estimates seasonal factors from past years’ patterns and applies them (for each week of the year) to the unadjusted data, producing seasonally adjusted series that smooth out recurring spikes and dips.
• The method allows “moving seasonality,” meaning the size and timing of seasonal effects can change over time.

Why adjusted and unadjusted numbers can move differently:

• In a given week, if actual claims rise more than the seasonal factor expects, seasonally adjusted claims will rise; if they rise less than expected (or even fall when an increase is expected), seasonally adjusted claims can fall even when raw claims rise.
• Around holidays and year‑end, these differences can be large because seasonal swings are big and hard to model precisely.

That is why this report can show, for example, unadjusted initial claims up about 11% week over week, while seasonally adjusted initial claims rise by a smaller amount, or in some weeks even move in the opposite direction.

UCFE and UCX are federal unemployment programs for specific groups of workers, administered by states but funded by the federal government:

• UCFE (Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees)

  • Covers civilian federal employees (e.g., postal workers, agency staff) who lose their jobs.
  • Benefits are generally calculated under the state’s rules where the worker files, but wages from federal employment are used to establish eligibility and benefit amount.

• UCX (Unemployment Compensation for Ex‑Servicemembers)

  • Covers recently separated military personnel (and some other uniformed services like certain NOAA officers).
  • Eligibility is based on active-duty service during a specified base period and an honorable (or qualifying) discharge; benefits are paid through the state UI system but reimbursed by federal funds.

So in the tables, UCFE and UCX counts show federal workers and ex‑servicemembers drawing unemployment benefits under these special federal programs.

States like Washington and New Jersey often have higher insured unemployment rates than the U.S. average mainly because more of their unemployed workers are actually receiving UI benefits (higher recipiency), not necessarily because overall joblessness is dramatically worse.

Key reasons their IURs run high:

• More generous and accessible UI systems: These states generally have
  • higher maximum weekly benefits,
  • broader eligibility rules (easier for part‑time, low‑wage, or intermittent workers to qualify), and
  • longer potential benefit durations. Higher benefits and easier access encourage more eligible workers to apply, pushing up the share of unemployed who receive UI.
• Industrial and seasonal mix: They have sizable sectors (like tech, professional services, education, and certain manufacturing or public sectors) where separations often qualify for UI and where laid‑off workers tend to file claims.

Research on state recipiency shows that states with larger benefits and broader eligibility rules consistently have higher UI recipiency and higher insured unemployment rates, which fits the pattern seen for Washington and New Jersey in this report.

State‑supplied comments on layoffs are collected through the ETA 539: Weekly Claims and Extended Benefits Trigger Data report that each state UI agency submits to the U.S. Department of Labor.

• On the ETA 539 form, states can enter narrative comments describing the reasons for notable weekly changes in claims (for example, layoffs at a specific auto plant, seasonal shutdowns in construction, or education layoffs after school terms end).
• DOL uses these comments internally to interpret unusual movements in the data and, when warranted, to craft the “state detail” or specific industry/layoff explanations that appear in the Weekly Claims news release.

So those brief notes about layoffs by industry or employer are based on administrative reports from state UI offices, summarized by DOL for context around the numerical claims figures.