New Hampshire sees another jump in unemployment filings
(The Center Square) – First-time state unemployment claims in New Hampshire ticked up slightly again last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
At least 1,224 new applications for benefits were filed for the week that ended May 8 – an increase of 725 from the previous week, the federal agency said.
There were 76 new claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers who don’t qualify for state unemployment benefits, in the week that ended May. That’s an increase of 47 claims over the previous week.
Meanwhile, 19,133 continuing state jobless claims – which lag behind a week but are viewed as a barometer of the unemployment situation – were filed in the week ending May 1, decreasing by 186 over the previous week.
The state has paid out more than $1.8 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits since mid-March, when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
New Hampshire’s jobless rate dropped slightly to 3% in March, according to the New Hampshire Employment Security.
Gov. Chris Sununu has taken steps in recent weeks to ease COVID-19 restrictions and reopen the economy amid declining virus infections and one of the highest per capita vaccination rates in the nation. New Hampshire was one of the first states to lift a mask mandate several weeks ago.
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 decreased 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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