42.6 million unemployment insurance claims since outbreak hit

What in normal times would be a disastrous report on new unemployment insurance claims actually is an improvement compared with recent weeks as the figure dipped below 2 million for the first time since early March.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported this morning that in the week ending May 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment insurance claims was 1,877,000.

The numbers bring the total unemployment insurance claims tied to the COVID-19 pandemic to more than 42,650,000 in the 11 weeks since the effects of the outbreak and efforts to contain it began to take a serious economic toll.

In today’s report, the Labor Department also said that the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 14.8% for the week ending May 23, an increase of 0.5% from the previous week’s revised rate.

Initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits filed by former federal civilian employees totaled 2,053 in the week ending May 23, an increase of 229 from the prior week. There were 1,414 initial claims filed by newly discharged veterans, an increase of 201 from the preceding week.

The Labor Department also reported that for the week ending May 16 the unemployment rate in New York state was 19.2%, ranking it sixth highest in the country. The other top 10 states were: Nevada at 24.9%; Maine at 22.9%; Michigan at 22.9%; Puerto Rico at 22.7%; Hawaii at 20.6%; Rhode Island  at 18.6%; Washington at 17.7%; Louisiana at 17.4%; and New Hampshire at 16.8%.

The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending May 23 were in: Maine, up 11,941; Oklahoma, up 10,274; Michigan, up 7,859; Kentucky, up 6,417; and Oregon, up 4,913. The largest decreases were in: Washington, down 90,683; Florida, down 49,993; California, down 41,169; New York, down 34,875; and Illinois, down 14,517.

Connecticut had 14,268 new unemployment insurance claims for the week ended May 30, a drop of 2,335 from the previous week’s 16,603.

New York had 82,981 new unemployment insurance claims for the week ended May 30, a drop of 106,106 from the 189,087 new claims the previous week.