According to statistics released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor, during the week ending May 9 there were 2,981,000 new seasonally adjusted claims for unemployment insurance benefits, a drop of 195,000 claims from the previous week.
That brings the total unemployment insurance claims filed since mid-March, when the COVID-19 outbreak was accelerating, to approximately 36.5 million. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 15.7 percent for the week ending May 2.
There was a slight upward revision to the previous week’s claims number, up by 7,000 from 3,169,000 to 3,176,000.
Both New York and Connecticut were in the top 10 states for unemployment rates in the week ending April 25. In order, they were: California at 27.7%; Michigan 23.1%; Nevada 22.0%; Pennsylvania 21.2%; Rhode Island 20.6%; Georgia 20.2%; Vermont 20.0%; New York 18.6%; Connecticut 18.0%; and Washington 18.0%.
The Labor Department reported that new unemployment insurance claims from former federal civilian employees totaled 2,033 in the week ending May 2, an increase of 119 from the prior week.
The states with the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 2 were: Oklahoma, up 41,385; Maryland, 25,318; New Jersey, up 16,360; Maine, up 8,452; and Puerto Rico, up 4,600. The states with the largest decreases were: Florida, down 258,243; Alabama, down 45,981; Georgia, down 38,213; Washington, down 37,289; and Pennsylvania, down 33,451.
Connecticut had 298,680 new unemployment insurance claims for the week ending May 9, an increase of 36,138 from the 262,542 claims filed during the week ending May 2.
New York had 200,375 new claims during the week ending May 9, an increase of 5,265 from the 195,110 claims for the week ending May 2.
The New York State Department of Labor reports that since the business shutdown measures went into effect to combat the spread of the coronavirus it has paid $7.4 billion in unemployment benefits to New Yorkers. It said the amount is three-and-a-half times the total benefits paid during 2019.
The department reports that it has processed more than 330,000 applications by New Yorkers for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program. Under the program, people who work freelance or as independent contractors and normally would not qualify for unemployment insurance are able to receive benefits.
The state Labor Department announced that it is suspending the practice of assessing forfeiture day penalties. These are penalties imposed when a person has received unemployment benefits it is later determined they should not have received. Usually, for every four forfeiture days someone is assessed, that person must forfeit a week of future unemployment benefits.
Those with other flags on their accounts, including child support payments and offset payments to reimburse the state for benefits they improperly received, will continue to see payments reduced so that the state is repaid amounts owed.
