Area Development
Weekly initial unemployment insurance claims dropped by 36,000 to 383,000 claims for the week ending February 5. The insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent for the week ending January 29. This figure did not change from the prior week.

Actual initial claims under state programs reached more than 438,500 for the week ending February 5, a drop of nearly 26,000 claims. To compare, there were more than 507,600 claims for the same week in 2010.

For the week ending January 22, the total number of people claiming benefits across all programs was more than 9.4 million.

More than 3.75 million people claimed emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) for the week ending January 22, a rise of more than 100,300 from the previous week. For the same week in 2010, there were nearly 5.5 million claimants.

Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin, and Oregon recorded the highest insured unemployment rates for the week ending January 22, with 7.3 percent, 5.4 percent, 5.3 percent, 5.3 percent, and 5.2 percent, respectively.

California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin experienced the biggest jump in initial claims for the week ending January 29. North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, New Jersey, and Tennessee experienced the largest drops in claims.