The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) reported this morning that the number of new claims for unemployment insurance benefits during the week ending Nov. 14 went up by 31,000 from the previous week, to 742,000 seasonally-adjusted claims.
The DOL also reported that during the week ending Oct. 31, there were a total of 20,319,615 Americans claiming unemployment insurance benefits, compared with 1,476,521 who had claimed benefits during the same week a year ago.
Some analysts suggested that the increase was tied to the surge in new Covid-19 cases sweeping through parts of the country. The Wall Street Journal suggested that the increase indicated that new challenges for the U.S. economy lie ahead.
There were 13,540 former federal civilian employees claiming unemployment benefits for the week ending Oct. 31, an increase of 1,183 from the previous week. Newly discharged veterans claiming benefits totaled 11,905, a decrease of 271 from the prior week.
The highest insured unemployment rates in the week ending Oct. 31 were in California, 8.3%; Hawaii, 8.3%; New Mexico, 8%; Nevada, 7.6%; Georgia, 6.5%; Pennsylvania, 6.4%; Alaska, 6.2%; Massachusetts, 6.2%; District of Columbia, 6%; and Illinois, 5.7%.
The largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Nov. 7 were in Washington, up 7,683; California, up 5,293; Massachusetts, up 3,383; Alabama, up 1,704; and Louisiana, up 1,626.
The largest decreases were in Georgia, down 13,426; Illinois, down 6,357; Kentucky, down 4,830; Texas, down 3,934; nd New Jersey, down 3,725.
In the week ending Nov. 14, New York state had 43,299 new claims, a drop of 577 from the previous week”™s 43,876. Connecticut”™s number of new claims went up by 467 from the previous week”™s 5,126 to 5,593 during the same period.
