SALT LAKE CITY — Claims for unemployment benefits are still high in Utah, but have declined seven weeks in a row, the Department of Workforce Services reported Thursday.
The number of new claims was 4,961 for the week of June 14 to June 20, 2020. There were 84,557 weekly claims filed during that same week. A total of $23,868,989 was paid in traditional unemployment benefits. An additional $45,756,510 of the $600 weekly stimulus was paid out to claimants, as well as $1,152,649 in federally funded extended benefit payments, for a total of $71,011,859 in unemployment benefits for the week. A total of 1,629 new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims were submitted.
The number of individuals who ended their unemployment insurance claim on June 13, 2020 was 7,039. A total of 5,666 ended their claim during the previous week. As the state continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, this number will help demonstrate the number of individuals no longer accessing unemployment benefits.
“While we have seen new claims seemingly stabilize at a very high number, we remain hopeful as continued claims for ongoing benefits have declined for seven consecutive weeks,” said Kevin Burt, Unemployment Insurance Division director for the Utah Department of Workforce Services. “This means people are returning to work faster than they are applying, we hope this continues as we work towards full economic recovery.”
The three industries that saw the highest percentage of claims this week, as self-identified by the claimant at the time of their filing, were:
- Office and Administrative Support (11.7%)
- Management Occupations (10%)
- Production Occupations (8.6%)
The five counties in Utah that had the highest number of individuals file new unemployment insurance claims were:
- Salt Lake (38.7%)
- Utah (15%)
- Davis (7.5%)
- Weber (6.9%)
- Washington (4%)
Burt will conduct his weekly news conference to go over the latest numbers and trends at 9:30 a.m. It will be live streamed on the FOX 13 webpage, app and Facebook page.