New unemployment claims slightly down

The U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning that for the week ending June 20, new claims for unemployment benefits dropped by 60,000 from the previous week, coming in at 1,480,000.

However, it also revised upward by 32,000 what it had reported last week as being the number of new claims for the week ended June 13. That number now stands at 1,540,000. The newest results raise the approximate number of people who have made new unemployment insurance claims in 14 weeks of the COVID-19 crisis to 47.2 million.

The Labor Department also said that during the week ending June 6 there were 30,553,817 people with active unemployment benefits claims, a dramatic contrast with the 1,546,208 people claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 1,696 in the week ending June 13, a decrease of 21 from the prior week. There were 1,194 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 35 from the preceding week

The highest unemployment rates in the week ending June 6 were in: Nevada, 22.6%; Puerto Rico, 20.6%; Hawaii, 18.3%; New York, 17.8%; California, 17.3%; Michigan, 16.9%; Louisiana, 16.2%; Massachusetts, 16.2%; the Virgin Islands, 16.2%, and Connecticut, 15.8%.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending June 13 were in: Oklahoma, up 7,254; Texas, up 5,047; New Jersey, up 3,272; New York, up 1,351; and Louisiana, up 1,243.

The largest decreases were in: Florida, down 24,013; Maryland, down 18,188; Massachusetts, down 14,731; California, down 14,412; and Michigan, down 6,543.

Connecticut had 10,362 new claims for benefits during the week ended June 20, down 1,490 from the previous week”™s 11,852.

New York had 90,186 new claims for benefits during the week ended June 20, down 4,964 from the previous week”™s 95,150.