3 weeks of jobless claims in Nevada outstrip all of 2019

Unemployment claims were down 20 percent from two weeks ago but still set the second highest weekly total of new claims in state history.

Altogether, for the week ending March 28 there were 71,942 initial claims. That’s more than 20,000 less than the more than 85,000 filed the previous week.

A spokesman for the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said that in the last three weeks, more Nevadans have filed for unemployment — 170,596 — than in all of 2019 — 119,232.

Continued weekly claims, which tend to lag behind initial claims, are beginning to catch up since that number now includes two of the last three weeks and, with non-essential businesses still shuttered, those two weeks of initial claims are now part of the ongoing total.

In Carson City, a total of 9,000 claims were filed between March 22 and March 28. In Douglas County the number was 581 for that period, in Churchill County, just 185 and Lyon County, 641.

In Washoe County, where employment at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center and the construction industry are booming, there were 8,118 new claims.

The vast majority are in Clark County because nearly all of the hospitality industry, including casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, are dark. The number of claims was 63,316 for the week ending March 28.

Nationally, there are now more than 6.6 million out of work, double the number reported just a week earlier as more states order non-essential workers to stay home.