In the week ending Jan. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 589,000, an increase of 62,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 527,000. The 4-week moving average was 519,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.4 percent for the week ending Jan. 10, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate of 3.4 percent.

The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Jan. 10 was 4,607,000, an increase of 97,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,510,000.

The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 768,858 in the week ending Jan. 17, a decrease of 187,905 from the previous week. There were 415,149 initial claims in the comparable week in 2008.

Extended benefits were available in North Carolina, Oregon, and Rhode Island during the week ending Jan. 3.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Jan. 3 were in Michigan (7.5 percent), Oregon (7.5), Idaho (6.7), Wisconsin (6.7), Pennsylvania (6.6), Indiana (5.7), Kentucky (5.7), North Carolina (5.7), South Carolina (5.6), and Rhode Island (5.5).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 10 were in Michigan (+34,639) with layoffs mainly in the automobile and manufacturing industries. Almost all industries posted increases. California (+22,573) had many of its layoffs in agriculture.