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Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Some 445,000 newly unemployed Americans filed first-time claims for jobless benefits during the week ending Jan. 18, which was an increase of 35,000 over the 410,000 people who filed initial claims the week before, according to the weekly report by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Unemployment stands at 9.6 percent. However, the insured unemployment rate was 3.1 percent for the week ending Jan. 1, the latest week for which those figures are available. That was a decrease of 0.2 percentage point from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.3 percent. Not all Americans are covered by unemployment compensation insurance.

There were 9,193,838 people claiming benefits in all unemployment compensation programs for the week ending Dec. 25, the latest week for which such figures are available.

Extended benefits were available in 35 states and the District of Columbia for the week ending Dec. 25, unchanged from the week before.

The DOL also reported:

• The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Dec. 25, and their percentages were in Alaska (7.5), Oregon (5.2), Idaho (5.1), Montana (4.9), Wisconsin (4.8), Pennsylvania (4.7), Puerto Rico (4.6), Nevada (4.5), Illinois (4.4) and Michigan (4.3).
• The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 1 were in Georgia (+11,997), Michigan (+10,129), Pennsylvania (+9,004), New York (+8,379), and Wisconsin (+7,236)
• The largest decreases were in California (-13,694), Florida (-1,867), Nevada (-972), Kansas (-841), and New Mexico (-721).

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