WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- Initial claims for unemployment insurance in the United States dropped to 409,000 in the week ending August 27, which represents a decrease of 12,000 compared to the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department (DOL) reported on Thursday.

The latest DOL report shows that the 4-week moving average was 410,250, an increase of 1,750 from the previous week's revised average of 408,500. In addition, the department also revealed that the number of unemployed with unemployment insurance for the week ending August 20 was unchanged compared to the previous week's 3.0 percent rate.

Furthermore, according to the DOL report, there was a decrease of 18,000 in the number of workers who claimed benefits under regular state unemployment programs, totaling 3,735,000 during the week ending August 20, while the 4-week moving average was 3,726,000, a decrease of 3,250 from the preceding week's revised average of 3,729,250.

Meanwhile, the unadjusted, advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, totaled 334,372 in the week ending August 27, a decrease of 10,498 from the previous week. There were 383,135 initial claims in the comparable week in 2010. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 13 was 7,336,276, an increase of 45,531 from the previous week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending August 13 were in Puerto Rico (5.2), Pennsylvania (4.2), New Jersey (3.9), Alaska (3.8) , California (3.8), Connecticut (3.8), Oregon (3.7), Rhode Island (3.7), Nevada (3.6) and Wisconsin (3.3).

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending August 20 were in Pennsylvania (+1,904), Puerto Rico (+1,453), Oregon (+698), Rhode Island (+634), and California (+615) while the largest decreases were in Massachusetts (-1,627), South Carolina (-1,058), Georgia (-978), Nevada (-695), and Florida (-670).