New jobless claims see slight increase in New Hampshire
(The Center Square) – New jobless claims in New Hampshire ticked up slightly last week, as the labor market’s choppy recovery continues.
At least 1,305 new applications for benefits were filed for the week that ended April 10 – an increase of 161 from the previous week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly report.
There were 668 new claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that covers workers ineligible for traditional unemployment benefits. That’s an increase of 287 claims over the previous week.
Meanwhile, 23,257 continuing state jobless claims – which lag behind a week but are viewed as a barometer of the unemployment situation – were filed in the week ending April 3, increasing by 1,514 over the previous week.
The state has paid out more than $1.8 billion in federal and state unemployment benefits since mid-March 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
New Hampshire’s jobless rate dropped slightly to 3% in March 2021, according to figures released earlier this week by the New Hampshire Employment Security.
Seasonally adjusted estimates showed 736,460 Granite Staters as were employed last month, a decrease of 11,840 from March 2020, the state agency said.
Nationally, 576,000 new jobless claims were filed last week, a decrease of 193,000 claims from the previous week, according to the Labor Department. That’s the lowest level for new claims since last March, the federal agency said.
Continuing claims increased by 4,000 to about 3.7 million nationally for the week that ended April 3, the labor department said.
While many jobless workers in New Hampshire have exhausted their state benefits they have been buoyed by a $1.9 trillion relief bill, signed by President Joe Biden last month, that extended federal pandemic relief programs until September, including a $300 per week federal enhanced benefit.
More than 16.9 million Americans were still receiving state or federal unemployment benefits in the week ending March 27.
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