Worrying rise reported in New Hampshire jobless numbers

A lot more people lost their jobs in New Hampshire last week, just as we it looked as if the state’s economy was almost returning to normal when it comes to employment.

Some 2,338 Granite Staters filed initial unemployment claims in the week ending Nov. 21, an increase of 519, or 28.5 percent, over the number the federal government previously reported. It is also up by 344 over the revised number.

It’s an indication that the steady economic improvement the state has been experiencing might be coming to an end as the number of Covid cases climb.

Just the previous week, continuing claims continued their slow decline. There were 21,339 Granite Staters still collecting benefits during the week of Nov. 14, an improvement of 888 from the previous week and even better — 1,293 – using the revised rate. In other words, the state had nearly reached the number of jobless – 20,000 – it had before the pandemic hit.

So, using all the revised rates, nearly twice as many people lost their jobs last week than returned to work the week before. For several months it had been the other way around as the economy began coming back.

The situation in the Granite State is the same across the nation. Some 778,000 new jobless claims were filed last week in the U.S., 36,000 more than the previous week (and 30,000 more than the revised figure). However, there were 6.1 million continuing claims, compared to 6.4 million reported and revised last week.

For those who are still collecting unemployment, it has been 11 weeks since the federal enhancement of an extra weekly $300 in benefits ended. And for those who have been collecting since March, all unemployment benefits should cease shortly after Christmas, unless there is a new deal cut between a lame-duck Congress and President Trump, or perhaps something passed retroactively by the newly elected Congress and President Biden next year.