Nevada awaiting guidelines from feds on expanded unemployment coverage

4:45 p.m. UPDATE, Thursday, April 2: More than 71,400 people filed for unemployment in Nevada last week, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor, pushing the number of jobless claims since casinos and other businesses closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus past 164,000.

The original story from Thursday morning, which at the time did not have Nevada-specific numbers to report, is below.

CARSON CITY, Nev. — Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation announced Wednesday it has entered an agreement with federal officials to implement the CARES Act stimulus legislation signed into law last week.

In a Wednesday press release, DETR Director Tiffany Tyler-Garner said they expect federal guidance on how to implement provisions of the initiative in the next few days.

She said that is the first step in getting funding approved for Nevadans as part of the $2.2 trillion aid package.

“I am pleased to see that we are one step closer to being able to address the needs of independent contractors and others who historically have not been covered under our traditional unemployment system,” she said.

Tyler-Garner said they are encouraged by the Department of Labor guidance and await the release of program guidelines in the near future.

Tyler-Garner's Wednesday statement came a few days after DETR announced that initial claims for unemployment insurance in Nevada totaled 92,298 for the week ending March 21 — representing an unprecedented increase of 85,942 claims, or 1,352 percent, compared to the previous week's total of 6,356.

Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, the U.S. Labor Department reported that a record 6.65 million Americans filed jobless claims in the week ended March 28.

Numbers specific to Nevada were not yet known as of 7 a.m. Thursday.

The overall U.S. report shows that job cuts are mounting against the backdrop of economies in the United States and abroad that have almost certainly sunk into a severe recession as businesses close across the world.

Applications for unemployment benefits generally reflect the pace of layoffs. Combined with last week's report that 3.3 million people sought unemployment aid two weeks ago, the U.S. economy has now suffered nearly 10 million layoffs in just the past several weeks — far exceeding the figure for any corresponding period on record.