Nevada unemployment claims rise in first week of January

Unemployment claims increased during the week ending Jan. 9.

Initial claims were up just over 1,000 to 9,511 — a 12 percent increase.

Since March 14, there have now been 803,738 initial claims filed with the state.

In addition, there were 78,793 continued claims filed during the week, an increase of 1.8 percent. That is only the third increase in continued claims filed since the first week of August.

Initial claims in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that provides benefits to the self-employed and others not eligible for regular benefits also increased to 7,263. That is a triple-digit increase since only 1,116 initial PUA claims were filed the week before.

Continued PUA claims totaled 75,105 for the first week of January, a decrease of 8,757 or 10.4 percent.

The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program and the State Extended Benefits program are the systems that pick up regular claimants after they exhaust regular benefits. PEUC provides up to 13 additional weeks of benefits and saw a 14,502-person decline in claims for the week ending Jan. 9.

After people exhaust those benefits the SEB program provides up to 20 added weeks of support. Because the economic downturn caused by the pandemic has gone on so long, more and more people are now applying to SEB. The number of claims increased 13,360 during the week to 47,876.

For those not sure how to access benefits, there are online tutorial videos in English and Spanish on the Nevada Unemployment Insurance YouTube page.