Unemployment claims up, continued claims fall again

Finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation show initial claims for unemployment insurance totaled 8,332 for the week ending Sept. 12, up 381 claims, or 4.8%, compared to last week’s total of 7,951 claims.

Through the week ending Sept. 12, there have been 686,683 initial claims filed in 2020, 665,031 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 fifth consecutive week to 206,166, a decline of 10,021 claims, or 4.6%, from the previous week’s total of 216,187.

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 0.7 percentage points to 14.9%.

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 10,318 initial claims filed in the week Sept. 12, an increase of 486, or 4.9 percent, from last week’s total of 9,832. Through the week ending Sept. 12, 451,497 PUA initial claims have been filed.

PUA continued claims totaled 94,736 in the week ending Sept. 12, a decline of 11,004, or 10.4 percent, from the previous week’s revised total of 105,740. 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 28,121 claims filed in the week, an increase of 2,223 claims from a week ago.

In the next several weeks, PEUC claims are expected to increase as large groups of regular program filers exhaust their regular unemployment benefits.

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 3,529 claims filed in the week, an increase of 342 claims from a week ago.

Nationally, the advance figure for unadjusted regular initial claims was 790,021 a decrease of 75,974 claims from the previous week.

The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending Sept. 5 was 8.4%, a decline of 0.7 percentage points from the previous week’s rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.