New jobless claims rise in New Hampshire, but ongoing claims down
(The Center Square) – First-time state unemployment claims in New Hampshire ticked up slightly last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
At least 1,833 new applications for benefits were filed for the week that ended May 1 – an increase of 324 from the previous week, the federal agency said.
There were 29 new claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers who don’t qualify for state benefits, in the week that ended April 24. That’s a drop of 3 claims over the previous week.
Meanwhile, 19,140 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 April 24, decreasing by 937 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.
Seasonally adjusted estimates showed 736,460 Granite Staters as were employed last month, a decrease of 11,840 from March 2020, the state agency said.
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 two weeks ago.
Nationally, 498,000 new jobless claims were filed last week, a decrease of 92,000 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 37,000 to about 3.69 million nationally for the week that ended April 17, the labor department said.
Jobless workers in New Hampshire 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.
More than 16.1 million Americans were still receiving state or federal jobless benefits in the week ending April 17, a decrease of about 400,000 from the previous week.
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