LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — For the week ending March 27, initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) totaled 11,677, up 4,036 claims, or 52.8%, compared to the previous week’s total of 7,641 claims, according to finalized data from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR). Through the week ending March 27, there have been a total of 908,138 initial claims filed since the week ending March 14, 2020.
Continued claims, which represent the current number of insured unemployed workers filing weekly for unemployment insurance benefits, totaled 70,509 claims, a decrease of 1,216 claims, or 1.7%, from the previous week’s total of 71,725. Continued claims have seen little change in the last six weeks.
Nevada’s Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program, which provides benefits to individuals who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits, saw 98,706 claims filed in the week, a decline of 8,350 claims from last week’s total of 107,056. The passage of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) significantly expanded the number of weeks that many workers will be able to collect pandemic-related unemployment insurance benefits. ARPA extended Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation through the week ending September 4, 2021.
Nevada’s State Extended Benefit (SEB) program which provides benefits to individuals who have exhausted both their regular and PEUC program benefits. Nevada saw 25,549 claims filed in the week, a decrease of 2,747 claims from a week ago.
The insured unemployment rate for the regular UI program, which is the ratio of regular continued claims in a week to the total number of jobs covered by the unemployment insurance system (also known as covered employment), fell to 5.3% from the previous week’s rate of 5.4%. Including claimants in the benefit extension programs, the rate, more appropriately called the extended insured unemployment rate, was 14.7%. It should be noted that the calculation of the insured unemployment rate is different from that of the state’s total unemployment rate.
TIMELINE: Nevada Dept. of Employment and handling of pandemic unemployment claims
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which provides benefits for self-employed, 1099 contract workers, and gig workers saw 746 initial claims filed in the week ending March 27, a decline of 2,227 claims, or 74.9%, from last week’s total of 2,973. Through the week ending March 27, there have been a total of 1,106,654 PUA initial claims filed.
There were 58,548 PUA continued claims filed in the week ending March 27, a decrease of 12,382 claims, or 17.5%, from the previous week’s revised total of 70,930.
To file for regular unemployment in the State of Nevada, please use the online application available 24/7 at http://ui.nv.gov/css.html. People unable to file online may file via telephone by calling a UI Claims Call Center between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday through Friday. Northern UI Call Center: (775) 684-0350; Southern UI Call Center: (702) 486-0350; Rural areas and Out-of-State: (888) 890-8211. Claimants are encouraged to use the internet to file their UI claims, as it is the fastest and most convenient way to file and reserves the phone lines for individuals who are not able to file online. Online filing during non-peak hours, such as early mornings, at night or weekends is also highly recommended. To continue to receive benefits, claimants must file weekly.
