First-time unemployment claims in New Hampshire declined again last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
There were 489 new applications for state jobless benefits filed for the week that ended July 24 – a decline of 127 from the previous week, the federal agency reported on Thursday.
Meanwhile, continuing jobless claims – which lag behind a week – totaled 7,342 in the week ending July 17, a decrease of 1,609 over the previous week.
The state reported 30 new claims for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance in the week that ended July 24, an increase of 37 from the prior week, according to the report.
New Hampshire is one of 25 states that have ended participation in the PUA and other federal unemployment programs. But federal rules prevent the state from pulling the plug immediately on existing beneficiaries.
The state has distributed more than $1.8 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits to workers since March 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
New Hampshire’s jobless rate remained steady at 2.9% in June, according to the New Hampshire Employment Security, one of the lowest rates in the nation.
Despite the gains, New Hampshire is facing a hiring crunch with tens of thousands of jobs unfilled as the state’s busy summer tourist season gets underway.
Gov. Chris Sununu has taken steps to lure workers back to their jobs amid a shortage of labor as the state eases COVID-19 restrictions and fully reopens its economy.
That includes bringing back a work search requirement and offering workers $500 to $1,000 bonuses if they get a job and keep it for at least eight weeks.
Nationally, there were 400,000 new claims filed in the week that ended July 24, an increase of 24,000 from the previous week, according to the labor department.
Continuing claims increased by 7,000 to 3.26 million nationally for the week that ended July 17. That’s a new pandemic low, according to the federal agency.
An estimated 13.1 million Americans were still receiving state or federal jobless benefits in the week ending July 17, the agency reported.
This article was originally posted on New Hampshire jobless claims continue to fall
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