First-time jobless claims ease as continuing claims climb
Numbers of people initially filing for unemployment insurance benefits week-toweek continues to decline, data reported by the U. S. Department of Labor showed Thursday.
However, the nation's unemployment rate climbed to a record 12.4% in mid-April, given that a record number of idled workers are receiving unemployment through state and federal programs through continuing claims.
The U.S. Labor Department stated about 3.84 million idled workers filed initial unemployment insurance claims during the week ending April 25, down about 603,000 from the number of people who filed the previous week.
In Oklahoma, the Labor Department reported that 42,577 Oklahomans filed initial claims for assistance last week, about 4,119 fewer than the adjusted number of 46,696 it reported a week earlier.
Nationally, the seasonally adjusted number of unemployed getting benefits under continuing claims was about 17.9 million, up nearly 2.2 million compared to the previous week.
In Oklahoma, 134,284 idled workers were enrolled in its system under continuing claims, compared to 112,311 the week before.
The data indicates the nation could see its percentage of unemployed workers climb to as much as 25%, said Robert Dauffenbach, director of the Center for Economic and Management Research at the University of Oklahoma's Price College of Business.
He said about 15.5 million Americans are drawing compensation under continuing claims, April's data shows.
That is nine times more than the number of people drawing continuing compensation during 2009. Dauffenbach said he expects Oklahoma's unemployment rate likely will peak at about 15%.
“Continuing claims tells you where the unemployment rate is going,” he said Thursday.
“We still have very high rates of initial claims, and that contributes to the number of continuing claims, and that is what impacts that unemployment rate.”
Operations reporting layoffs this week included Hertz, which laid off 415 at its Oklahoma administrative center, EAN Services and Enterprise Holdings in Tulsa, which laid off 329, Halliburton, which notified Oklahoma authorities it is releasing another 240 employees from its Duncan manufacturing facility, and Regal, which is letting go 446 from theaters it has in Midwest City, Moore and Broken Arrow.
“Although our weekly number of initial claims have fallen each of the last three weeks, this has been a record-setting month for unemployment in Oklahoma,” Robin Roberson, the Oklahoma Employment Securities Commission's executive director, said Thursday.
“We are certainly looking forward to getting residents back in the job market in a safe, measured approach. In the meantime, we're relentlessly working to resolve eligibility issues and connect claimants with benefits.”
Commission officials said Thursday they have redeployed more than 300 employees to focus solely on unemployment fraud, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims processing and an attempt to quickly reduce its backlog in customer assistance needs.
“We know Oklahomans are struggling with how to care for their families and meet financial obligations during this crisis,” Roberson said.
Meanwhile, she added that the agency hopes that many Oklahomans will be able to eventually return to work.
Dauffenbach echoed that thought, adding that things could begin to improve rapidly if everything goes as planned.
“We can have huge spikes in continuing claims that add to the unemployment rate,” Dauffenbach said, “but we can retrench from that pretty rapidly as continuing claims levels come down.”