New unemployment claims drop almost 10% in Nevada

Finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation show initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 8,032 for the week ending Aug. 29, down 826 claims, or 9.3%, compared to last week’s total of 8,858 claims. This is the fewest initial claims filed since the week ending March 14.

Through the week ending Aug. 29, there have been 670,400 initial claims filed in 2020, 662,368 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 for the third straight week to 221,599, a decline of 6,604 claims, or 2.9%, from the previous week’s total of 228,203. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending April 11, when there were 189,007 claims filed.

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 by 0.4 percentage points to 16.0%. 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, which provides up to 46 weeks of benefits for the self-employed, 1099 contract workers and gig workers, saw 10,411 initial claims filed in the week ending Aug. 29, a decrease of 460, or 4.2%, from last week’s total of 10,871. This is the fewest PUA initial claims filed in a week since the start of the program. Through the week ending Aug. 29, 431,347 PUA initial claims have been filed.

PUA continued claims totaled 104,592 in the week ending Aug. 29, a decline of 11,878 from the previous week’s revised total of 116,470. Weekly PUA continued claims are now reported by the benefit week claimed. This follows the reporting procedure for regular continued claims and allows us to understand the number of unemployed workers filing weekly for PUA benefits.

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 23,760 claims filed in the week, an increase of 2,125 claims from a week ago.

Nevada’s State Extended Benefit program, which provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular unemployment benefits and PEUC program benefits, saw 2,889 claims filed in the week, an increase of 551 claims from a week ago.

Nationally, the advance figure for unadjusted regular initial claims was 833,352 an increase of 7,591 claims from the previous week. The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending Aug. 22 was 9.0%, a decrease of 0.5 percentage points from the previous week’s revised rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.