Initial unemployment claims rise for first time since April

Finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation shows initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 11,110 for the week ending June 27, up 763 claims, or 7.4 percent, compared to last week’s total of 10,347.

This is the first week-over-week increase in regular initial claims since the week ending April 25. Through the week ending June 27, there have been 550,002 initial claims filed in 2020, 528,350 of which have been filed since the week ending March 14.

Continued claims, which represent the current number of insured unemployed workers filing weekly for unemployment insurance benefits, fell to 286,943, a decline from the previous week of 7,706 claims, or 2.6 percent. This is the sixth consecutive week where the total number of continued claims has fallen from the previous week.

Nevada’s insured unemployment rate, which is the ratio of continued claims in a week to the total number of jobs covered by the unemployment insurance system, fell 0.5 percentage points to 20.8 percent. It should be noted that the calculation of the insured unemployment rate is different from that of the state’s total unemployment rate.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program for the self-employed, 1099 contract workers and gig workers saw 69,144 initial claims filed in the week, an increase of 39,704 from last week’s total of 29,440. Given the underlying economic conditions, this is a questionable increase. PUA continued claims totaled 165,233 in the week ending June 27, a decline of 14,554 from the previous week’s revised total of 179,787.

Weekly PUA continued claims are now being reported by the benefit week claimed. This better represents the number of claimants filing by week.

Nevada’s Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 8,561 claims filed in the week, an increase of 744 from a week ago.

Nationally, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted regular initial claims was 1,427,000, a decline of 55,000 claims from the previous week’s revised level of 1,482,000. The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending June 20 was 13.2 percent, unchanged from the previous week’s revised rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.