This morning the state Employment Security Department reported that it received 181,975 new claims for unemployment insurance during the March 22-28 week. This is an increase of 53,013 over the 128,962 (revised) claims filed during the preceding week. The four-week moving average of claims is 82,910 39, up from 38,838 for the preceding week.

We estimate that the seasonally adjusted 4-week average of initial claims was was 92,980, up from 44,860 in the preceding week.