Initial unemployment claims fall again in New Hampshire

In the week that ended July 3, 668 new unemployment claims were filed in New Hampshire, a drop from the previous week. But there was some seemingly disturbing news that could be an aberration because it came during the week that New Hampshire dropped nearly 10,000 people off the jobless rolls

That action appears to have been reflected in a large increase in the number of continuing claims filed in the week ending June 26. It rose to 14,173 continuing claims, a jump of 4,071, or 40%.

What’s going on?

According to Employment Security Deputy Commissioner Richard Lavers, those state claims were inflated by individuals filing federal claims, even though the federal program ended June 19. The system counted them as state claims, since there are no longer any federal claims, he said.

According to Lavers, there were actually only about 8,500 actual state claims from the week ending June 26, a 15% drop from the previous week.

Most of the people who have lost those federal benefits were self-employed but a good chunk were people who had to stay home for Covid-related reasons, mainly to provide care to a dependent.

As the state approached June 19 – the day federal benefits were cut off in New Hampshire – claims have been falling pretty quickly, though they did jump up 19% the week ending June 12. In the week ending June 19, they fell by nearly 13%, to 5,792.

People receiving extended benefits – beyond the traditional 26 weeks – were also cut off on June 19. They totaled 3,841 that week, an 11% decrease.

All told, as a result of Governor Sununu’s decision to stop participating in the federal program early, 9,633 Granite Staters lost their unemployment benefits on June 19.

Nationally, traditional new claims rose 2.5%, to, 373,000, However, continuing claims fell to 3.34 million, 50,000 fewer than the previous week.