During the week of March 14-20, a total of 248 initial weekly claims for state unemployment benefits were processed by the Department of Labor and Regulation. This is a decrease of 107 claims from the prior week’s total of 355.
The latest number of continued state claims is 4,944 for the week ending March 13, a decrease of 8 from the prior week’s total of 4,952. This indicates the number of unemployed workers eligible for and receiving benefits after their initial claim.
For week ending March 20, a total of $1.2 million was paid out in state benefits, in addition to $1.7 million in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), $162,000 in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and $323,000 in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits.
The Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund balance was $150.6 million on March 21.
Benefits paid since March 16, 2020:
- Regular State = $107.9 million
- FPUC = $225.6 million
- PUA = $19.6 million
- PEUC = $7.2 million
Total = Approximately $360.3 million
Nationally…..
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to 684,000, the fewest since the pandemic erupted a year ago and a sign the economy is improving. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell from 781,000 the week before. It is the first time that weekly applications for jobless aid have fallen below 700,000 since mid-March of 2020. Before the pandemic tore through the economy, applications had never topped that level.
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