Initial unemployment claims in Nevada fell nearly 26% last week
The number of Nevadans filing for new and continued claims for Unemployment Insurance and the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program declined last week, according to a new weekly report from the state workforce agency.
The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Friday that initial claims for UI totaled 7,378 for the week ending Feb. 13, down 25.9 percent from the previous week of 9,953 claims.
Continued claims, which represent the current number of insured unemployed workers filing weekly for UI benefits, totaled 77,310 claims, a decrease of 3.1 percent from the previous week’s total of 79,798.
Through last week, there have been a total of 851,469 initial claims filed since the week ending March 14.
The PUA program, which provides benefits for self-employed, independent contractors and gig workers, saw 12,432 initial claims filed for the week ending Feb. 13, a decline of 64.9 percent from last week’s total of 35,460. There were 99,931 PUA continued claims filed at the same time.
There have been a total of 1.08 million PUA initial claims filed in Nevada as of last week.
Nevada’s unemployment rate in December, the latest figure available, was 9.2 percent. While the jobless rate continues to tick downward, the labor force participation rate saw a deep decline in December with a growing number of people neither working nor seeking work.
On Thursday, the Labor Department reported that 18.3 million people across the U.S. were receiving weekly unemployment payments through Jan. 30.
Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter.