Regular UI claims continue to fall, PUA claims still high

The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation announced that for the week ending Oct. 31, initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 8,158, down 878 claims or 9.7%, compared to last week’s total of 9,036 claims.

Through the week ending Oct. 31, there have been 745,239 initial claims filed in 2020, 723,587 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 12th consecutive week to 114,102, a decline of 13,571 claims, or 10.6%, from the previous week’s total of 127,673. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending March 28, when there were 58,798 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 one percentage points to 8.2%.

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 50,698 initial claims filed in the week ending Oct. 31, a decrease of 7,085 claims or 12.3%, from last week’s total of 57,783.

Given the underlying economic conditions, DETR is requiring additional verification of these highly suspect claims. Through the week ending Oct. 31, there have been 613,087 PUA initial claims filed.

PUA continued claims totaled 94,950 in the week ending Oct. 31, an increase of 5,697 claims, or 6.4%, from the previous week’s total of 89,253.

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 88,077 claims filed in the week, an increase of 4,610 claims from a week ago.

A continued increase in the number of PEUC claims is expected as claimants exhaust their regular program benefits.

Nevada’s State Extended Benefit program provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular unemployment and PEUC program. Nevada had 8,534 claims filed in the week, an increase of 1,580 claims from a week ago.

Nationally, the advance figure for unadjusted regular initial claims was, 738,166, a decrease of 543 claims from the previous week. The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending Oct. 24 was 4.7%, a 0.4 percentage point decline from the previous week’s rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.