Unemployment insurance claims up for the first time in 15 weeks

For the first time in 15 weeks, the number of people filing new claims for unemployment insurance went up. According to a report from the U.S. Department of Labor this morning, initial claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending July 18 rose to 1,416,000, an increase of 109,000 from the previous week’s 1,307,000. The latest claims bring the total claims filed during the past 18 weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic to 52.6 million.

The number of claims filed in Connecticut went up in the week ending July 18 by 1,604 to 11,559. The previous week it had been 9,955.

In New York state, there was a 3,286 drop in the number of claims filed during the week of July 18. The total came in at 88,260, compared with the previous week’s 91,546 claims.

The Labor Department calculated that the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 11.1% for the week ending July 11, a decrease of 0.7% from the previous week’s revised rate.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 1,732 in the week ending July 11, an increase of 409 from the prior week. There were 1,245 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 168 from the preceding week.

The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending July 4 were in: Puerto Rico, 26%; Nevada, 21.3%; Hawaii, 20.7%; Georgia, 18%; California, 16.9%; Louisiana, 16.6%; New York, 16.1%; Connecticut, 15.4%; the Virgin Islands, 15.2%; and Massachusetts, 15.0%.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending July 11 were in: Florida, up 65,890; Georgia, up 33,292; California, up 20,123; Washington, up 16,116; and Indiana, up 6,258.

The largest decreases were in: Maryland, down 13,728; Texas, down 11,583; New Jersey, down 8,577; Michigan, down 6,882; and Louisiana, down 5,066.

The Labor Department said that the extra $600 week in unemployment benefits the federal government has been adding to state benefits is now being distributed to recipients in all of the states. However, the benefit is due to expire at the end of the month. Reports from Capitol Hill indicate that Republican lawmakers plan to propose continuing an added benefit but would slash it to $100 from the current $600.

The cable network CNBC interviewed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this morning who said that a Republican unemployment benefits plan would be designed to provide approximately 70% wage replacement.

“We’re not going to continue it in its current form because we’re not going to pay people more money to stay at home than to work, but we want to make sure that the people out there who can’t find jobs do get a reasonable wage replacement,” Mnuchin said.

He said the Republican plan also would include “a lot of tax credits to incentivize companies to hire people.”

Mnuchin said that he had been working late last night with Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, a former Republican congressman from North Carolina, on a new plan but the White House and Republicans had yet to negotiate with Democrats. He also said that the new Covid-19 recovery spending may come in the form of a series of bills over time rather than a single comprehensive package.