CARSON CITY – For the week ending October 17, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 8,734 down 230 claims, or 2.6 percent, compared to last week’s total of 8,964 claims, according to finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR). Through the week ending Oct. 17, there have been 728,045 initial claims filed in 2020, 706,393 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 tenth consecutive week to 140,132, a decline of 17,073 claims, or 10.9 percent, from the previous week’s total of 157,205. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending April 4 when there were 131,121 claims filed.
Lincoln County had three initial and 43 continued claims for the week ending Oct. 17.
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 1.3 percentage points to ten 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 12,537 initial claims filed in the week ending October 17, an increase of 4,040 claims, or 47.5 percent, from last week’s total of 8,497. Through the week ending October 17, there have been 504,606 PUA initial claims filed.
PUA continued claims totaled 90,120 in the week ending October 17, a decline of 1,678, or 1.8 percent, from the previous week’s total of 91,798. 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 75,042 claims filed in the week, an increase of 11,491 claims from a week ago. A continued increase in the number of PEUC claims is expected as claimants began exhausting their regular program benefits.
Nevada’s State Extended Benefit (SEB) program provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular unemployment benefits and PEUC program benefits saw 5,868 claims filed in the week, an increase of 774 claims from a week ago.
Nationally, the advance figure for unadjusted regular initial claims was, 756,617, a decrease of 73,125 claims from the previous week. The national insured unemployment rate for the week ending October 10 was 5.5 percent, a 0.6 percentage point decline from the previous week’s 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.”