Jobless claims in Iowa up 45% last week, $10.2M paid out in benefits

IOWA — 7,255 initial unemployment claims were filed last week in Iowa, an increase of 2,250 (44.96%) from the previous week.

6,673 initial claims for the week of April 11-17 were by people who work and live in Iowa, and 582 were by individuals who work in Iowa but live outside the state.

“The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims was 33,546, a decrease of 46 from the previous week.  For the week ending April 17, 2021, nearly 41.5% of claimants indicated their claims were not COVID-19 related, which is a decrease from 45.7% the previous week.,” Iowa Workforce Development said in a release.

Continuing claims for the week were 33,546, a decrease of 46 (0.14%).

IWD said the following areas had the most claims:

• Industry Not Available – Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc. (1,578)
• Manufacturing (1,533)
• Retail Trade (529)
• Accommodation & Food Services (477)
• Health Care & Social Assistance (471)

• A total of $19,399,200 in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits paid, which include retroactive payments and reauthorized payments that went into effect on Dec. 27, 2020. Since April 4, 2020, a total of $1,939,300,933 in FPUC benefits has been paid.
• $4,094,548 paid in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits. Since April 13, 2020, a total of $235,632,356.54 in PUA benefits has been paid.
• $8,278,665.63 in Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits paid this week. Since May 27, 2020, a total of $321,027,538.83 in PEUC benefits have been paid.