Maine’s jobless claims continue to recede
(The Center Square) – New claims for unemployment benefits in Maine dropped again last week, as layoffs continue to slow amid the state’s steadily improving economy.
At least 1,241 new applications for state jobless benefits were filed for the week that ended May 8 – a decline of 150 claims from the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
There were 89 new claims filed Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers who don’t qualify for state unemployment benefits. That’s a decrease of 195 claims over the previous week.
Continuing claims for state unemployment benefits – which lag behind a week but are viewed as a barometer of the jobless situation – are also dropping. There were 12,088 continuing claims for state benefits filed in the week ending May 1, a decrease of 1,633 over the previous week.
The state has distributed more than $2.1 billion in state and federal jobless benefits to about 370,000 jobless workers during the pandemic, according to state data.
The state’s unemployment rate stood firm at 4.8% in March after adding 4,100 jobs that month, according to the Maine Department of Labor.
That’s down from a high of 9.1% last April but still higher than the state’s average 3% unemployment rate throughout 2019.
Gov. Janet Mills has taken steps in recent weeks to ease COVID-19 restrictions and reopen the state’s economy amid improving public health metrics and rising numbers of vaccinated residents.
Nationally, 473,000 new jobless claims were filed last week, a decrease of 34,000 claims from the previous week, according to the Labor Department. That’s the lowest level for new claims since the week of March 14, 2020, the federal agency said.
Continuing claims increased by 45,000 to about 3.65 million nationally for the week that ended May 1, the federal agency said.
Jobless workers in Maine and elsewhere have been buoyed by a $1.9 trillion relief bill, signed by President Joe Biden last month, that extended federal pandemic relief programs until September, including a $300 per week federal enhanced benefit.
Despite the improving economic conditions, more than 16.8 million Americans were still receiving state or federal jobless benefits in the week ending April 24, an increase of about 700,000 from the week of April 27.
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