New unemployment claims continue to plummet in New Hampshire

More Granite Staters are returning to work as unemployment claims continue on their downward path.

For the week ending June 5, 587 new claims were filed for state assistance, according to federal Department of Labor statistics released Thursday. That’s a 30% decline from the previous week – a figure that itself was 17% below the numbers reported the week before.

While initial claims may continue to gyrate, the trend is clear: fewer and fewer people are losing their jobs.

Meanwhile for the week ending May 29, continuing claims fell by nearly 13% to 13,789, a decline that’s over 5.5% below the week before. In other words, more than one in eight jobless individuals went off unemployment in a week.

Meanwhile, the number of Granite Staters collecting federal benefits – mostly self-employed people as well as others staying home for Covid-related reasons – fell almost 6% to 7,891 during the week ending May 22. And the number on extended benefits – which run after the traditional 26 weeks – fell by 5.6%, to 5,749, for the week ending May 22.

Those federal benefits will end in New Hampshire on June 19, although they will continue in many other states until Labor Day. Gov. Chris Sununu joined several other Republican governors in deciding that ending them sooner would coax more workers back to work.