Initial Nevada unemployment claims lowest since March

Initial claims for unemployment benefits fell 20.7 percent in the week ending Nov. 28 to 6,442.

Officials at the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation say that’s the lowest number of new claims since March 14 when the pandemic first hit the state.

In addition, continuing claims fell 10 percent to 93,873, the 16^th straight week of declines in that category. But Chief Economist David Schmidt said much of the decline is due to claimants exhausting their regular unemployment insurance benefits and moving to the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that picks those workers up. But PUEC also saw a decline in recipients, but by only 105 people.

The final leg of the programs to help workers who lose jobs is the State Extended Benefit program where DETR says 148,332 claims were filed during the week, an increase of 1,469 claims.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides benefits to the self-employed and gig workers not covered by regular unemployment, saw 8,345 new claims during the week. That is an increase of 12.5 percent. There were 77,712 continued PUA claims filed in the week. That is a the lowest number of continued PUA claims since the PUA program began.