County continued claims fall
CARSON CITY, NV – Finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) show initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 8,858 for the week ending Aug. 22, down 2,080 claims, or 19.0 percent, compared to last week’s total of 10,938 claims. This is the fewest initial claims filed since the week ending March 14. Through the week ending August 22, there have been 662,510 initial claims filed in 2020, 640,716 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 second straight week to 228,203, a decline of 12,143 claims, or 5.1 percent, from the previous week’s total of 240,346. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending April 11 when there were 189,007 claims filed.
Lincoln County reported five initial claims for the week ending Aug. 22. That is slightly up from four during the previous week. The county had 55 continued claims, down significantly from 86.
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 (also known as covered employment), fell by 0.9 percentage points to 16.4 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 (PUA) program, which provides up to 46 weeks of benefits for the self-employed, 1099 contract workers, and gig workers saw 10,871 initial claims filed in the week ending August 22, a decrease of 1,485, or 12.0 percent, from last week’s total of 12,356. This is the fewest PUA initial claims filed in a week since the start of the program. Through the week ending August 22, 420,936 PUA initial claims have been filed.
PUA continued claims totaled 107,334 in the week ending August 22, a decline of 12,862 from the previous week’s revised total of 120,196. 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 (PEUC) program, which provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 21,365 claims filed in the week, an increase of 1,837 claims from a week ago.
Nevada’s State Extended Benefit (SEB) program, which provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular unemployment benefits and PEUC program benefits, saw 2,338 claims filed in the week, an increase of 861 claims from a week ago.
Nationally, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted regular initial claims was 1,006,000 a decrease of 98,000 claims from the previous week’s revised level of 1,104,000. The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending August 15 was 9.9 percent, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous week’s revised rate. The national rate is reported with a one-week lag.
Unemployment filing is available at http://ui.nv.gov/css.html or (888) 890-8211. Claimants are encouraged to file online, if possible.
For Nevada workers who are self-employed, 1099 contract workers, and gig workers, Nevada’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) is available. For further information regarding the PUA program visit detr.nv.gov/pua#. Individuals can file online at www.employnv.gov or call the PUA Call Center at (800) 603-9681.
Employers and individuals who believe they have been a victim of unemployment fraud, can file a report with the agency by visiting www.detr.nv.gov and selecting the Fraud Reporting Form on the left under “Quick links.”
DETR recently announced that Nevada submitted its application for the Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) Grant Program created by President Donald Trump under Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act. The State of Nevada’s initial request for LWA is for approximately $300 million. If the application is approved, the grant will provide eligible claimants up to an additional $300 per week in temporary supplemental financial support for the first three weeks of August.
Under the terms of the President’s memorandum issued on Aug. 8, only claimants whose unemployment is COVID-related are eligible, and those who are currently receiving less than $100 in weekly unemployment benefits are not eligible for the supplemental benefit.
If the State of Nevada’s application is approved, the State will immediately begin working on the necessary technology changes to the current system to accommodate the new program, DETR stated. The LWA Grant Program, which is administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has a spending cap of $44 billion. Once the allocation is exhausted, benefits will end. Thus, states must reapply each week after the first three weeks, giving FEMA the opportunity to calculate the program’s remaining balance after the first round of grants. The program also would be halted if FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund balance drops below $25 billion.Additionally, DETR announced that applications have been submitted to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for approximately $1.7 million under two federal grants to support fraud investigations and other fraud detection-related activities, including implementing tools to increase prevention, detection and recovery of any fraudulent or improper payments in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) programs.