State unemployment initial claims at lowest level since March

by

CARSON CITY – For the week ending November 28, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 6,442, down 1,679 claims, or 20.7 percent, compared to the previous week’s total of 8,121 claims, according to finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR). This is the fewest claims filed since the week ending March 14. Through the week ending November 21, there have been a total of 774,601 initial claims filed in 2020, 752,949 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 sixteenth consecutive week to 84,633, a decline of 9,510 claims, or 10.1 percent, from the previous week’s total of 93,873. This decline continues the ongoing trend seen in the regular program over the last several months, with much of the declines due to claimants exhausting their regular unemployment insurance benefits.

Lincoln County had six initial claims for the week ending Nov. 28. Continued claims held study above 50.

Nevada’s Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which currently provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 95,860 claims filed in the week, a decline of 105 claims from last week’s total of 95,965.

Nevada’s State Extended Benefit (SEB) program currently provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular and PEUC program benefits.  Nevada saw 14,832 claims filed in the week, an increase of 1,469 claims from a week ago.

The insured unemployment rate for the regular UI program, which is the ratio of regular continued claims in a week to the total number of jobs covered by the unemployment insurance system (also known as covered employment), fell 0.7 percentage points to 6.0 percent. Including claimants in the benefit extension programs, the rate, more appropriately called the extended insured unemployment rate, was considerably higher at 14.0 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 benefits for self-employed, 1099 contract workers, and gig workers saw 8,345 initial claims filed in the week ending November 28, an increase of 1,047 claims, or 12.5 percent, from last week’s total of 7,298. Through the week ending November 28, there have been a total of 657,960 PUA initial claims filed.

There were 77,712 PUA continued claims filed in the week ending November 28, a decrease of 4,076 claims, or 5.2 percent, from the previous week’s revised total of 81,544. This is the fewest continued claims filed in any week for the PUA program.

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.”