New unemployment claims fall 25.4% across Nevada

Finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation shows initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 13,727 for the week ending Aug. 1, down 4,663 claims or 25.4% compared to last week’s total of 18,390 claims. This is the first decline in weekly initial claims since the week ending June 20.

Through the week ending August 1, there have been 624,817 initial claims filed in 2020, 603,165 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 327,954, a decline from the previous week of 18,184 claims, or 5.3%.

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 1.3 percentage points to 23.6%. 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 18,495 initial claims filed in the week ending Aug. 1, a decrease of 15,577, or 45.7%, from last week’s total of 34,072. Since the PUA program began, 385,103 initial claims have been filed.

PUA continued claims totaled 128,190 in the week ending Aug. 1, a decline of 22,116 from the previous week’s revised total of 150,306. 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 15,617 claims filed in the week, an increase of 762 claims from a week ago.

Nevada’s State Extended Benefit program, which provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular unemployment benefits and PEUC program benefits, saw 898 claims filed in the week, an increase of 506 claims from a week ago.

Nationally, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted regular initial claims was 1,186,000, a decrease of 249,000 claims from the previous week’s revised level of 1,434,000.

The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending July 25 was 11.0 percent, a decrease of 0.6 percentage points from the previous week’s revised rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.