Continued Nevada jobless claims decrease in regular and emergency programs

As unemployed workers continue to exhaust their regular and pandemic emergency benefits, the number of State Extended Benefit claims continued to increase.

SEB is the final program for jobless workers who are insured by the employment Security Division. That program, saw continued claims increase 44 percent or 10,543. SEB provides up to 20 weeks of benefits to those who have used up their other benefits.

Regular continued claims fell 5,698 in the week ending Jan. 2 and PEUC continued claims were down 9,338. Regular continued weekly claims have now decreased in 20 of the past 22 weeks.

Initial claims, however, increased during the week. In the regular program, new filings were up 17.4 percent to 8,461.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program that provides benefits to the self-employed and other workers not normally qualified for regular benefits saw just 1,116 new claims in the week, a decline of 78 percent from the previous week.

This is the ninth consecutive week of declines in PUA continued claims as well, down 5,698 claims or 6.7 percent. The total of 78,770 claims is also the lowest number of continued claims since the start of the PUA program.