Ongoing, new claims for jobless benefits decline again in Maine
(The Center Square) – First-time claims for state unemployment benefits in Maine dropped last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
At least 1,335 new applications for state jobless benefits were filed for the week that ended May 1 – a decline of 354 claims from the previous week, the federal agency said.
There was a slight increase in new claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers who don’t qualify for state benefits. The state reported 284 new claims for PUA benefits, an increase of 135 claims over the previous week.
Meanwhile, 13,355 continuing claims for state unemployment benefits – which lag behind a week but are viewed as a barometer of the jobless situation – were filed in the week ending April 24, a decrease of 499 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, 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 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.
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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