For the week ending Nov. 7, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 7,556, down 602 claims, or 7.4 percent, compared to last week’s total of 8,158 claims, according to finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR).
Through the week ending Nov. 7, there have been 752,795 initial claims filed in 2020, 731,143 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 thirteenth consecutive week to 105,591, a decline of 8,151 claims, or 7.1 percent, from the previous week’s total of 114,102. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending March 28 when there were 58,798 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 (also known as covered employment), fell 0.6 percentage points to 7.6 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 18,485 initial claims filed in the week ending November 7, a decrease of 32,213 claims, or 63.5 percent, from last week’s total of 50,698.
This marked decline comes after unprecedented increases in the previous two weeks. DETR is looking into the underlying cause of the spike. Through the week ending November 7, there have been 631,572 PUA initial claims filed.
PUA continued claims totaled 90,611 in the week ending November 7, a decrease of 9,261 claims, or 9.3 percent, from the previous week’s total of 94,950. 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 92,211 claims filed in the week, an increase of 4,134 claims from a week ago.
A continued increase in the number of PEUC claims is expected as claimants exhaust their regular program benefits.
To file for unemployment in the State of Nevada, use the online application available 24/7.
