Nevada unemployment claims rise 12% for week ending July 4

CARSON CITY, Nev. — The number of initial unemployment claims increased 12.4% in the week ending July 4 to 12,484.

That is the second consecutive week of increased regular claims, according to stats released Friday by the Nevada department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

Continuing claims, which represent the current total insured unemployed workers, also increased during the week, but only by four-tenths of a percent.

Still, there are 287,968 people receiving benefits in the regular program.

That raised the state's unemployment rate for regular workers to 20.9%, the first increase in continued claims since the state began the process of reopening businesses.

As of July 04, 562,482 total claims have been filed for standard unemployment insurance, per the state — this number includes both new claims and reopened claims with intervening employment, and 540,834 of those claims have been filed since March 14.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) that provides help to the self-employed, 1099 contract and gig workers saw 62,810 people file for help in the week ending July 4. That is a decrease of 6,334 filings from the previous week.

But DETR officials say they question the number of PUA claims since nearly half of the 285,980 claims files so far were filed in just the past two weeks.

Finally, the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program that provides 13 weeks of extended benefits to those who have expired their regular benefits was 9,405 new claims filed during the week.

"(This week), the Research & Analysis Bureau will release our monthly estimates of employment and unemployment in Nevada, which will reflect the state's economy as of the middle of June," said Dave Schmidt, Nevada Chief Economist.