Initial Unemployment Claims Soften, But Payments Continue to Climb

May 14, 2020

As more businesses begin to reopen their doors, initial unemployment claims for the week of May 3-9 dropped to a little under 17,000. That's down from the previous week of 24,693. $52.9 million was paid out of the trust fund for benefits, which means this is the third consecutive week over $50 million has been paid out of the state unemployment trust fund. The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims was 191,257. Sectors that saw the most initial claims filed included manufacturing (4,065); those who are not identified by industry including the self-employed, independent contractors, etc. (2,103); and health care and social assistance (1,865). Read the news release.