New unemployment claims down nearly 50%

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DES MOINES - The number of initial claims in Iowa, filed between Sunday, May 24, and Saturday, May 30, was 6,920. There were 6,271 initial claims by individuals who work and live in Iowa, and 649 claims by individuals who work in Iowa and live in another state.   This is a decline of nearly 50% from the previous week's total initial claims. The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims for May 24-30 was 165,195, down 13,000 from the previous week. The U.S. Department of Labor provided updates to last week’s number of initial and continuing claims made between May 17-23, which amounts to 13,653 initial claims and 178,619 continuing claims. Iowa Workforce Development relies upon the weekly data released by the U.S. Department of Labor to report its numbers and as such, adopts the revisions to the previously published data. 

Unemployment insurance benefit payments totaled $51,043,465.89 for the same week. The following industries had the most claims: 

  • Manufacturing (1,897)
  • Health Care & Social Assistance (784)
  • Industry Not Available - Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc. (553)
  • Retail Trade (511)
  • Accommodation & Food Services (462)

A total of $105,700,800 in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits was paid during the week of May 24-30, 2020. Since April 4, 2020, a total of $766,791,000 in FPUC benefits has been paid.

A total of $4,606,876 was paid in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits during the week of May 17-23, 2020.

IWD began processing Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits on May 27, 2020 and so far a total of $7,546,816.98 in PEUC benefits have been paid. 

Employees and employers who have questions regarding returning to work should review the Frequently Asked Questions for each group on our website.  Assistance for employers can be found here:   https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/sites/search.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/files/content-files/FAQs%20Employers%2005.05.20-2.pdf.  

Employees can find assistance here: https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/sites/search.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/files/content-files/FAQs%20Workers%2005.30.20_0.pdf 

For more information on the total data for this week’s unemployment claims, please visit  https://www.iowalmi.gov/unemployment-insurance-statistics

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