Las Vegas, NV (KXNT) - The latest numbers from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) show initial claims for unemployment insurance increased by 5.5 percent compared to last week’s total. Through the week ending October 3, there have been 710,347 initial claims filed in 2020, 688,695 of which have been filed since the week ending March 14.
Continued claims, which represent the current number of insured unemployed workers filing weekly for unemployment insurance benefits, fell for the eighth consecutive week to 173,629, a decline of 16,984 claims, or 8.9 percent, from the previous week’s total. This is the fewest continued claims since the report week ending April 4 when there were 131,121 claims filed.
Nevada’s insured unemployment rate fell by 1.25 percentage points to 12.5 percent.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which provides up to 46 weeks of benefits for the self-employed, 1099 contract workers, and gig workers saw a decrease of 15.7 percent from last week’s.
PUA continued claims declined 1.3 percent, from the previous week
Nevada’s Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides up to 13 weeks of benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 50,782 claims filed in the week, an increase of 13,436 claims from a week ago.
PEUC claims are expected to increase as large groups of regular program filers exhaust their regular unemployment benefits.