WASHINGTON - For the week ending May 26, 2007, seasonally adjusted unemployment insurance weekly claims fell 4,000 to 310,000, from the previous week's revised figure of 314,000, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.9 percent for the week ending May 19, unchanged from the prior week's unrevised rate of 1.9 percent.
During the week ending May 19, the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate decreased 52,000 to 2,472,000, from the preceding week's revised level of 2,524,000.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending May 12 were in Alaska (3.7 percent), Puerto Rico (3.2), Michigan (3.0), Pennsylvania (2.7), New Jersey (2.6), Oregon (2.5), Arkansas (2.4), California (2.4), Rhode Island (2.4), Massachusetts (2.3), and Wisconsin (2.3).
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 19 were in North Carolina (+3,858), Missouri (+3,106), Arkansas (+1,301), South Carolina (+1,126), and Ohio (+833), while the largest decreases were in Oregon (-1,016), Wisconsin (-720), Tennessee (-595), Washington (-266), and Mississippi (-192).
South Carolina posted an increase of 1,126 layoffs in the manufacturing industry.