Maine sees spike in new unemployment claims

(The Center Square) – New unemployment claims in Maine ticked up slightly last week, as extended federal pandemic relief benefits began flowing to jobless workers in the state.

At least 1,811 new applications for state jobless benefits were filed for the week that ended March 13 – an increase of 332 claims from the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.

There were 309 new claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits. That’s a rise of 183 from the previous week.

Last week, President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion relief bill that extended pandemic relief programs until September and allows workers who were unemployed last year to exclude the first $10,200 of benefits they received from federal income taxes.

Meanwhile, 15,434 continuing claims for state unemployment benefits – which lag behind a week but are viewed as a barometer of the unemployment situation – were filed in the week ending March 6, a decline of 908 over the previous week.

The state has distributed more than $1.96 billion in state and federal jobless benefits to at least 351,900 jobless workers during the pandemic, according to state data.

The state’s jobless rate rose slightly to 5.2% in January, according to the latest figures released by the Maine Department of Labor.

Nationally, about 770,000 new jobless claims were filed last week, a decrease of about 45,000 claims from the previous week, according to the Labor Department.

Continuing claims dropped by 18,000 to about 4.1 million nationally for the week that ended March 6, the labor department said.

Despite the gradually improving labor market, more than 18.2 million Americans were still receiving state or federal unemployment benefits in the week ending Feb. 27.

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