State reports 73,000 unemployment claims in final week before new portal went live – The Southern

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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive unemployment higher in Illinois.

SPRINGFIELD The U.S. saw nearly 3 million more unemployment claims the week ending May 9, including another 72,993 in Illinois, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The 2.98 million claims nationwide in the week pushed the jobless claims in the first two months of the novel coronavirus pandemic to more than 36 million. The unprecedented number of claims made for a national unemployment rate of 15.7% the week ending May 2.

In Illinois, the number of new claims on the week was 1,483 fewer than the week prior. The number of new claims each week has gone down since a peak of 201,041 during the week of April 4. The Illinois Department of Employment Security said in a news release it has now processed 1,076,461 claims for regular unemployment benefits from March 1 through May 9.

Continued claims reached 756,441 in the state last week, which was the final period before contractors and self-employed persons were able to file for special federal pandemic unemployment assistance in Illinois.

While the number of initial claims for regular benefits has plateaued in the last two weeks, IDES will experience an increase in overall claims processed when the federal pandemic unemployment assistance claims data becomes available Thursday, May 21, according to the departments news release.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said this week more than 50,000 applications had been filed through the states new pandemic unemployment assistance system since Monday.

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State reports 73,000 unemployment claims in final week before new portal went live - The Southern