During the week of May 17 through May 23, a total of 3,410 initial weekly claims for unemployment benefits were processed by the Department of Labor and Regulation. This is a decrease of 481 claims from the prior week’s total of 3,891.
A total of $4.0 million was paid out in state benefits, in addition to $12.6 million paid out in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) and $696,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits. The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund balance May 24 was $94.4 million.
The latest number of continued claims is 25,186 for the week ending May 9. This indicates the number of unemployed workers eligible for and receiving benefits after their initial claim.
“On Tuesday, Governor Noem signed Executive Order 2020-26 to extend the existing COVID-19 State of Emergency to Dec. 30, 2020,” said state Labor and Regulation Secretary Marcia Hultman. “This means both the non-paid waiting week and work search requirement set to expire May 31 will continue to be waived until further notice.”
