New jobless claims in September drop to lowest level since mid-March
The number of Nevadans filing for new jobless claims in September dropped to the lowest level since the start of COVID-19’s state impact, the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Friday.
Just over 7,500 jobless residents filed initial claims last week, down 8.2 percent, compared with the previous week. DETR said it’s the lowest weekly total of initial claims filed since mid-March.
Filers submitting continued claims, which represent the current number of insured unemployed workers filing weekly for unemployment insurance benefits, also fell for the seventh-consecutive week to 190,613. It is the first time continued claims in Nevada dipped below 200,000 since mid-April.
Self-employed workers and independent contractors under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program filed 11,198 initial claims for the same week, down 2.1 percent, or 240 claims, from the previous week. Continued claims for PUA totaled 95,829 for the same period.
Tourism-dependent Nevada was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic with a 33 percent unemployment rate in April as businesses across the valley closed the month prior to help contain the virus’s spread. Casinos, the state’s main economic engine, were allowed to reopen in early June.
Nevada’s unemployment rate dropped to 13.2 percent in August, according to DETR, which is below the state’s peak during the Great Recession.
While Friday’s declining unemployment figures are encouraging, “it is still roughly equivalent to the levels that we saw during the peak of the Great Recession, higher than the worst point of almost every other recession in our modern history,” said Jeremy Aguero, a principal in local research and consulting firm Applied Analysis.
One way of framing Las Vegas’ economic recovery is a pie chart divided into thirds, he said.
“The first third of employees we expected to come back when the economy opened back up, and they did,” he said. “We’re in the middle of the second third, which is when the economy is regaining its footing and another set of jobs are coming back with the decline in initial and continued unemployment claims. Those are very positive and great. The hardest part is going to be that last third.”
Federal stimulus money has helped small businesses and Southern Nevadans, but Aguero said as it wears off, things could get worse before they get better.
Nationally, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday that employers added 661,000 jobs last month, down from 1.5 million in August and 1.8 million in July. Hiring slowed in September even as the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 7.9 percent.
Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
