Recent PUA jobless claims spike ‘highly suspect,’ agency says

Nevada’s workforce agency said recent initial jobless claims for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program are “highly suspect.”

The state Department of Employment, Training, and Rehabilitation said Friday that it saw 50,698 initial claims for the PUA program, meant for independent contractors and gig workers, filed last week. The agency saw 57,783 initial PUA claims the week before, calling the applications “questionable.”

The new PUA claims for the last two straight weeks, in the 50,000-range territory, represent a nearly five-fold increase compared to the initial PUA figures in late September and early October. DETR said it will require additional verification from the new PUA claims “given the underlying economic conditions.”

Continued claims for PUA totaled 94,950 last week, increase of 5,697 claims, from the week prior.

There have been 613,087 PUA initial claims filed with DETR since the program launched.

State unemployment officials have previously said the agency is battling an influx of bogus unemployment applications, contributing to payment delays.

“We are tracking this latest data to identify any potential trend related to increases in initial PUA claim submittals, but don’t have anything to report at this time,” agency spokeswoman Rosa Mendez said in a statement about the recent spikes.

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.