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News Release

Connect with DOL at http://blog.dol.gov

TRANSMISSION OF MATERIALS IN THIS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 8:30 A.M. (Eastern) Thursday, September 21, 2017

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE WEEKLY CLAIMS SEASONALLY ADJUSTED DATA In the week ending September 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 259,000, a decrease of 23,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 2,000 from 284,000 to 282,000. The 4-week moving average was 268,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised average. This is the highest level for this average since June 4, 2016 when it was 269,500. The previous week's average was revised down by 500 from 263,250 to 262,750. Hurricanes Harvey and Irma impacted this week's claims. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.4 percent for the week ending September 9, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending September 9 was 1,980,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised down by 8,000 from 1,944,000 to 1,936,000. The 4-week moving average was 1,953,000, an increase of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised down by 2,000 from 1,948,500 to 1,946,500.

UNADJUSTED DATA The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 212,297 in the week ending September 16, an increase of 13 (or +0.006 percent) from the previous week. The seasonal factors had expected an increase of 18,607 (or +8.8 percent) from the previous week. There were 205,649 initial claims in the comparable week in 2016. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.2 percent during the week ending September 9, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 1,736,615, an increase of 36,425 (or 2.1 percent) from the preceding week. The seasonal factors had expected a decrease of 1,936 (or -0.1 percent) from the previous week. A year earlier the rate was 1.3 percent and the volume was 1,835,919.

The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending September 2 was 1,729,253, a decrease of 114,202 from the previous week. There were 1,905,531 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2016. No state was triggered "on" the Extended Benefits program during the week ending September 2. Initial claims for UI benefits filed by former Federal civilian employees totaled 658 in the week ending September 9, a decrease of 114 from the prior week. There were 655 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, a decrease of 62 from the preceding week. There were 8,076 former Federal civilian employees claiming UI benefits for the week ending September 2, a decrease of 281 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 9,083, a decrease of 684 from the prior week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending September 2 were in Puerto Rico (2.7), New Jersey (2.6), Alaska (2.0), Connecticut (2.0), Pennsylvania (1.9), California (1.8), Massachusetts (1.7), New York (1.7), Illinois (1.6), Nevada (1.6), and Rhode Island (1.6). The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending September 9 were in Iowa (+534), Nebraska (+64), Tennessee (+30), Wyoming (+23), and Washington (+22), while the largest decreases were in Texas (-11,764), California (-7,375), Michigan (-4,483), New York (-2,938), and Florida (-2,289).

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DATA FOR REGULAR STATE PROGRAMS WEEK ENDING Initial Claims (SA) Initial Claims (NSA) 4-Wk Moving Average (SA) WEEK ENDING Insured Unemployment (SA) Insured Unemployment (NSA) 4-Wk Moving Average (SA) Insured Unemployment Rate (SA)2 Insured Unemployment Rate (NSA)2

September 16

September 9

Change

September 2

259,000 212,297 268,750

282,000 212,284 262,750

-23,000 +13 +6,000

298,000 250,621 250,250

September 9

September 2

Change

August 26

1,980,000 1,736,615 1,953,000 1.4% 1.2%

1,936,000 1,700,190 1,946,500 1.4% 1.2%

+44,000 +36,425 +6,500 0.0 0.0

Prior Year1 252,000 205,649 256,750 Prior Year1

1,951,000 2,105,000 1,812,516 1,835,919 1,951,000 2,130,750 1.4% 1.5% 1.3% 1.3%

INITIAL CLAIMS FILED IN FEDERAL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED) WEEK ENDING Federal Employees (UCFE) Newly Discharged Veterans (UCX)

September 9 658 655

September 2 772 717

Change -114 -62

Prior Year1 614 1,018

PERSONS CLAIMING UI BENEFITS IN ALL PROGRAMS (UNADJUSTED) WEEK ENDING Regular State Federal Employees Newly Discharged Veterans Extended Benefits3 State Additional Benefits4 STC / Workshare 5 TOTAL

September 2 1,697,152 8,076 9,083 0 5,742 9,200 1,729,253

August 26 1,809,633 8,357 9,767 0 5,909 9,789 1,843,455

Change -112,481 -281 -684 0 -167 -589 -114,202

Prior Year1 1,862,449 8,988 13,095 0 6,323 14,676 1,905,531

FOOTNOTES SA - Seasonally Adjusted Data, NSA - Not Seasonally Adjusted Data 1. 2. 3. 4.

5.

Prior year is comparable to most recent data. Most recent week used covered employment of 139,989,708 as denominator. Information on the EB program can be found here: EB Program information 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: Extensions and Special Programs PDF Information on STC/Worksharing can be found starting on page 4-9 of the following link: Extensions and Special Programs PDF

Advance State Claims - Not Seasonally Adjusted STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida I Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto RicoI Rhode Island South Carolina* South Dakota Tennessee Texas H Utah Vermont Virgin Islands* Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming US Total

Initial Claims Filed During Week Ended September 16 Advance Prior Wk Change 2,039 2,085 -46 1,189 857 332 3,605 3,411 194 1,286 1,420 -134 40,275 30,402 9,873 1,613 1,530 83 2,671 2,580 91 452 439 13 540 279 261 9,906 4,773 5,133 4,596 4,899 -303 1,166 1,108 58 763 767 -4 7,822 7,657 165 2,105 2,016 89 1,858 2,247 -389 1,492 1,373 119 1,851 1,783 68 2,008 2,375 -367 463 469 -6 2,731 2,898 -167 4,191 4,051 140 5,109 5,543 -434 2,876 2,623 253 1,043 1,201 -158 2,759 2,513 246 808 678 130 634 704 -70 2,276 2,473 -197 395 414 -19 7,654 7,455 199 831 747 84 14,640 13,835 805 2,862 2,382 480 283 288 -5 9,222 5,146 4,076 1,091 1,525 -434 4,004 3,265 739 11,031 11,083 -52 2,528 283 2,245 837 728 109 2,416 2,161 255 157 139 18 2,006 2,203 -197 28,475 52,024 -23,549 1,020 774 246 284 306 -22 36 40 -4 2,749 2,535 214 5,294 5,215 79 643 709 -66 3,428 3,620 -192 284 253 31 212,297 212,284 13

Insured Unemployment For Week Ended September 9 Advance Prior Wk Change 16,595 16,579 16 6,528 6,310 218 26,587 30,376 -3,789 11,920 12,437 -517 321,409 297,261 24,148 20,515 19,288 1,227 32,435 33,719 -1,284 4,526 4,719 -193 7,963 8,501 -538 39,394 46,151 -6,757 25,711 27,345 -1,634 7,841 7,157 684 3,777 4,240 -463 92,397 91,173 1,224 14,481 16,073 -1,592 15,213 13,919 1,294 9,072 9,663 -591 17,548 16,670 878 18,263 20,721 -2,458 3,788 3,869 -81 27,942 33,973 -6,031 54,113 59,966 -5,853 44,176 45,235 -1,059 27,417 26,938 479 8,768 10,221 -1,453 20,106 20,981 -875 4,245 4,238 7 4,183 4,040 143 18,901 20,149 -1,248 3,298 3,808 -510 92,414 99,999 -7,585 9,246 9,277 -31 137,678 153,208 -15,530 19,829 21,138 -1,309 2,432 2,132 300 45,372 46,034 -662 14,142 14,845 -703 23,832 24,234 -402 103,839 106,751 -2,912 29,198 23,786 5,412 6,583 7,448 -865 14,943 15,092 -149 945 919 26 17,535 17,921 -386 196,716 128,496 68,220 6,763 7,026 -263 2,472 2,446 26 484 434 50 23,668 22,949 719 45,666 44,460 1,206 8,872 8,546 326 22,728 25,101 -2,373 2,146 2,228 -82 1,736,615 1,700,190 36,425

Note: Advance Claims are not directly comparable to claims reported in prior weeks. Advance claims are reported by the state liable for paying the unemployment compensation, whereas previous weeks reported reflect claimants by state of residence. In addition, claims reported as "workshare equivalent" in the previous week are added to the advance claims as a proxy for the current week's "workshare equivalent" activity. *Denotes OUI staff estimate. H Affected by Hurricane Harvey. I Affected by Hurricane Irma.

Seasonally Adjusted US Weekly UI Claims (in thousands)

Week Ending September 10, 2016 September 17, 2016 September 24, 2016 October 1, 2016 October 8, 2016 October 15, 2016 October 22, 2016 October 29, 2016 November 5, 2016 November 12, 2016 November 19, 2016 November 26, 2016 December 3, 2016 December 10, 2016 December 17, 2016 December 24, 2016 December 31, 2016 January 7, 2017 January 14, 2017 January 21, 2017 January 28, 2017 February 4, 2017 February 11, 2017 February 18, 2017 February 25, 2017 March 4, 2017 March 11, 2017 March 18, 2017 March 25, 2017 April 1, 2017 April 8, 2017 April 15, 2017 April 22, 2017 April 29, 2017 May 6, 2017 May 13, 2017 May 20, 2017 May 27, 2017 June 3, 2017 June 10, 2017 June 17, 2017 June 24, 2017 July 1, 2017 July 8, 2017 July 15, 2017 July 22, 2017 July 29, 2017 August 5, 2017 August 12, 2017 August 19, 2017 August 26, 2017 September 2, 2017 September 9, 2017 September 16, 2017

Initial Claims 258 252 253 247 248 258 255 261 250 239 248 262 251 251 265 258 241 245 241 252 250 237 248 247 227 252 246 261 259 235 234 243 257 238 236 233 235 255 245 238 242 244 250 248 234 245 241 244 232 235 236 298 282 259

Change from Prior Week 1 -6 1 -6 1 10 -3 6 -11 -11 9 14 -11 0 14 -7 -17 4 -4 11 -2 -13 11 -1 -20 25 -6 15 -2 -24 -1 9 14 -19 -2 -3 2 20 -10 -7 4 2 6 -2 -14 11 -4 3 -12 3 1 62 -16 -23

4-Week Average 258.75 256.75 255.00 252.50 250.00 251.50 252.00 255.50 256.00 251.25 249.50 249.75 250.00 253.00 257.25 256.25 253.75 252.25 246.25 244.75 247.00 245.00 246.75 245.50 239.75 243.50 243.00 246.50 254.50 250.25 247.25 242.75 242.25 243.00 243.50 241.00 235.50 239.75 242.00 243.25 245.00 242.25 243.50 246.00 244.00 244.25 242.00 241.00 240.50 238.00 236.75 250.25 262.75 268.75

Insured Unemployment 2,105 2,076 2,066 2,063 2,064 2,052 2,045 2,050 2,010 2,050 2,084 2,020 2,033 2,044 2,097 2,102 2,081 2,061 2,083 2,063 2,067 2,071 2,052 2,057 2,059 2,025 1,987 2,052 2,035 2,028 1,978 1,987 1,979 1,920 1,899 1,924 1,919 1,929 1,936 1,942 1,945 1,965 1,949 1,977 1,965 1,967 1,956 1,954 1,954 1,945 1,951 1,936 1,980

Change from Prior 4-Week Week Average -34 2,130.75 -29 2,113.25 -10 2,096.50 -3 2,077.50 1 2,067.25 -12 2,061.25 -7 2,056.00 5 2,052.75 -40 2,039.25 40 2,038.75 34 2,048.50 -64 2,041.00 13 2,046.75 11 2,045.25 53 2,048.50 5 2,069.00 -21 2,081.00 -20 2,085.25 22 2,081.75 -20 2,072.00 4 2,068.50 4 2,071.00 -19 2,063.25 5 2,061.75 2 2,059.75 -34 2,048.25 -38 2,032.00 65 2,030.75 -17 2,024.75 -7 2,025.50 -50 2,023.25 9 2,007.00 -8 1,993.00 -59 1,966.00 -21 1,946.25 25 1,930.50 -5 1,915.50 10 1,917.75 7 1,927.00 6 1,931.50 3 1,938.00 20 1,947.00 -16 1,950.25 28 1,959.00 -12 1,964.00 2 1,964.50 -11 1,966.25 -2 1,960.50 0 1,957.75 -9 1,952.25 6 1,951.00 -15 1,946.50 44 1,953.00

IUR 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4 1.4

STATE Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virgin Islands Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Totals

Initial Claims Filed During Week Ended September 9 INITIAL CLAIMS CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR UCFE UCX (%) 1 1 STATE WEEK AGO STATE 2 2085 -169 -140 8 4 16579 0.9 857 -49 -141 1 2 6310 2.0 3411 -538 -177 3 1 30376 1.2 1420 -363 -186 4 8 12437 1.1 30402 -7375 -5211 141 129 297261 1.8 1530 -170 -426 4 18 19288 0.8 2580 -210 -90 6 5 33719 2.0 439 17 -22 0 1 4719 1.1 279 -62 -2 9 2 8501 1.5

CHANGE FROM LAST YEAR WEEK AGO -362 -3882 -169 -1724 -1354 -2560 -679 -1825 -30642 -20520 -1196 -4516 -5876 -3214 -1432 -392 -350 316

UCFE UCX ALL PROGRAMS EXCLUDING RAILROAD 1 1 RETIREMENT 57 95 16731 67 21 6398 96 89 30561 57 65 12559 1616 1887 300764 116 303 19707 52 69 33840 14 11 4744 476 13 8990

4773 4899 1108 767 7657 2016 2247 1373 1783 2375 469 2898 4051 5543 2623 1201 2513 678 704 2473 414 7455 747 13835 2382 288 5146 1525 3265 11083 283 728 2161 139 2203 52024 774 306 40 2535 5215 709 3620 253 212284

-4976 -824 -216 -386 -5473 1368 -572 -302 -2625 -89 -239 -1363 -5606 -3083 127 -834 -1789 -403 -67 398 -459 -3887 -222 -3303 -1327 -52 -1750 263 -633 -12541 -4685 -1506 0 -66 -1408 -7109 -61 -582 0 -1033 -1280 -263 -1238 -170 -112326

173 251 169 267 54 84 27 7 339 254 39 40 41 43 69 47 129 129 60 33 18 20 309 165 152 196 97 116 52 92 21 41 283 38 45 27 16 10 56 71 4 3 177 296 70 66 341 475 90 167 16 1 89 223 70 88 100 125 474 388 61 62 29 25 55 83 27 7 402 58 699 1331 141 28 8 3 4 0 242 406 176 694 35 33 57 24 9 13 8076 9083

-2289 -4 -76 -51 -646 -403 534 -183 -176 -540 20 -352 -431 -4483 8 21 -449 13 64 -30 -93 -352 -49 -2938 -613 -46 -321 -337 -311 -1058 -1293 -42 0 -23 30 -11764 -226 -4 0 -294 22 -76 -200 23 -38337

-2720 -224 -132 -218 -371 -599 625 -621 -342 -19 -75 -291 -369 144 -349 -103 -598 3 123 130 -63 267 -61 -260 -585 -39 -819 -672 275 -1320 -1234 72 -30 -49 -169 38952 -214 -73 -59 -509 -35 -447 -1390 -144 18993

23 14 4 1 12 5 4 4 3 2 1 31 7 14 3 1 41 2 3 2 0 18 3 22 8 2 10 9 8 76 0 1 6 5 9 84 29 0 0 9 6 0 0 0 658

42 29 15 3 16 5 7 3 0 4 0 10 17 12 4 3 2 1 2 6 1 16 2 32 10 2 25 10 5 27 0 2 9 0 4 109 2 1 0 15 16 7 5 4 655

46151 27345 7157 4240 91173 16073 13919 9663 16670 20721 3869 33973 59966 45235 26938 10221 20981 4238 4040 20149 3808 99999 9277 153208 21138 2132 46034 14845 24234 106751 23786 7448 15092 919 17921 128496 7026 2446 434 22949 44460 8546 25101 2228 1700190

0.6 0.7 1.2 0.6 1.6 0.5 0.9 0.7 0.9 1.1 0.7 1.4 1.7 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.4 1.6 0.6 2.6 1.2 1.7 0.5 0.5 0.9 1.0 1.3 1.9 2.7 1.6 0.8 0.2 0.6 1.1 0.5 0.8 1.2 0.6 1.4 1.3 0.9 0.8 1.2

Insured Unemployment For Week Ended September 2 INSURED UNEMPLOYMENT

-6754 -3262 -170 -1177 -5520 -3509 -1476 -1489 -2803 -7499 -525 338 -2317 -2095 -1515 -2055 -4340 -473 50 -1191 -257 -1273 -2065 -3268 -3529 -601 -4482 -6238 -376 -9288 380 -377 -921 -234 -70 -36264 -987 -386 -262 -1445 2050 -4188 -4487 -2422 -167089

46575 27781 7295 4274 91766 16152 14003 9779 16928 20814 3907 34447 60314 45448 27082 10283 21302 4310 4066 20276 3815 100472 9413 154024 21395 2149 46346 15003 24459 107613 23909 7502 15230 953 18381 130526 7195 2457 438 23597 45330 8614 25182 2250 1717349

Figures Appearing In columns showing Over-The-Week Changes reflect all revisions in data for prior week submitted by State agencies. 1. 2.

The Unemployment Compensation program for Federal Employees (UCFE) and the Unemployment Compensation for Ex-servicemembers (UCX) exclude claims filed jointly under other programs to avoid duplication. Rate is not seasonally adjusted. The source of US total covered employment is BLS.

UNADJUSTED INITIAL CLAIMS FOR WEEK ENDED SEPTEMBER 9, 2017 STATES WITH AN INCREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 State None

Change

State Supplied Comment

STATES WITH A DECREASE OF MORE THAN 1,000 State TX CA MI NY

Change -11,764 -7,375 -4,483 -2,938

FL

-2,289

PR PA

-1,293 -1,058

State Supplied Comment No comment. Fewer layoffs in the service industry. Fewer layoffs in the wholesale trade industry. Fewer layoffs in the transportation and warehousing, accommodation and food service, and educational service industries. Fewer layoffs in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting, construction, manufacturing, wholesale trade, retail trade, and service industries. No comment. Fewer layoffs in the transportation and warehousing, accommodation and food service, and manufacturing service industries.

TECHNICAL NOTES This news release presents the weekly unemployment insurance (UI) claims reported by each state's unemployment insurance program offices. These claims may be used for monitoring workload volume, assessing state program operations and for assessing labor market conditions. States initially report claims directly taken by the state liable for the benefit payments, regardless of where the claimant who filed the claim resided. These are the basis for the advance initial claims and continued claims reported each week. These data come from ETA 538, Advance Weekly Initial and Continued Claims Report. The following week initial claims and continued claims are revised based on a second reporting by states that reflect the claimants by state of residence. These data come from the ETA 539, Weekly Claims and Extended Benefits Trigger Data Report. A. Initial Claims An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after a separation from an employer. The claimant requests a determination of basic eligibility for the UI program. When an initial claim is filed with a state, certain programmatic activities take place and these result in activity counts including the count of initial claims. The count of U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance is a leading economic indicator because it is an indication of emerging labor market conditions in the country. However, these are weekly administrative data which are difficult to seasonally adjust, making the series subject to some volatility. B. Continued Weeks Claimed A person who has already filed an initial claim and who has experienced a week of unemployment then files a continued claim to claim benefits for that week of unemployment. Continued claims are also referred to as insured unemployment. The count of U.S. continued weeks claimed is also a good indicator of labor market conditions. Continued claims reflect the current number of insured unemployed workers filing for UI benefits in the nation. While continued claims are not a leading indicator (they roughly coincide with economic cycles at their peaks and lag at cycle troughs), they provide confirming evidence of the direction of the U.S. economy. C. Seasonal Adjustments and Annual Revisions Over the course of a year, the weekly changes in the levels of initial claims and continued claims undergo regularly occurring fluctuations. These fluctuations may result from seasonal changes in weather, major holidays, the opening and closing of schools, or other similar events. Because these seasonal events follow a more or less regular pattern each year, their influence on the level of a series can be tempered by adjusting for regular seasonal variation. These adjustments make trend and cycle developments easier to spot. At the beginning of each calendar year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) with a set of seasonal factors to apply to the unadjusted data during that year. Concurrent with the implementation and release of the new seasonal factors, ETA incorporates revisions to the UI claims historical series caused by updates to the unadjusted data.

Weekly Claims Archives Weekly Claims Data U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at http://www.dol.gov. The Departments Reasonable Accommodation Resource Center converts Departmental information and documents into alternative formats, which include Braille and large print. For alternative format requests, please contact the Department at (202) 693-7828 (voice) or (800) 877-8339 (federal relay).

U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration Washington, D.C. 20210 Release Number: USDL 17-1314-NAT

Program Contacts: Brenda Loya (202) 693-3760 Tony Sznoluch (202) 693-3176 Media Contact: (202) 693-4676