CARSON CITY – For the week ending October 24, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 9,036, up 302 claims, or 3.5 percent, compared to last week’s total of 8,734 claims, according to finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR). Through the week ending October 24, there have been 737,081 initial claims filed in 2020, 715,429 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 eleventh consecutive week to 127,673, a decline of 12,459 claims, or 8.9 percent, from the previous week’s total of 140,132. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending March 28 when there were 58,798 claims filed.
Lincoln County recorded 12 initial and 59 continued claims over the same time period. Those numbers are up from three and 43 respectively.
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 0.85 percentage points to 9.15 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 57,783 initial claims filed in the week ending October 24, an increase of 45,246 claims, or 360.9 percent, from last week’s total of 12,537. This marked increase is questionable given the underlying economic conditions. DETR will track this latest data to identify any potential trend related to increases in initial claim submittals. Through the week ending October 24, there have been 562,389 PUA initial claims filed.
PUA continued claims totaled 89,253 in the week ending October 24, a decline of 867 claims, or one percent, from the previous week’s total of 90,120. 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 83,467 claims filed in the week, an increase of 8,425 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 6,954 claims filed in the week, an increase of 1,086 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.”