New initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits totaled 4,703 for the week ending July 25, decreasing 17 percent – or 984 claims – from the previous week.
The four-week moving average fell 3 percent to an average of 5,193 new initial claims per week.
Continued claims – the number of people who requested a benefit payment – dropped by 4 percent from the previous week to 26,445, the 12th consecutive week of declines. The four-week moving average for continued claims also fell 4 percent from 29,091 for the week ending July 18 to 27,981 for the week ending July 25.
Manufacturing represented 15 percent of total claims for the week ending July 25. Health care and social assistance represented 14 percent, accommodation and food services 12 percent and retail trade 11 percent. The aggregated claims for these four sectors accounted for 51 percent of the weekly total.
By age, 25 percent of claims were for people ages 25 to 34. People aged 35 to 44 years represented 23 percent, young people under age 25 claimed 18 percent and workers ages 45 to 54 accounted for 17 percent. By gender, women filed 52 percent of all initial claims – the fourth consecutive week women have held a slight majority over men for claims filed.
Laid-off Idaho workers filed six times more claims than those filed during the same week in 2019.
The department paid out $38.4 million in claims during the week ending July 25, up from $35.9 million for the week ending July 18. Regular state unemployment benefit payouts were $5.8 million, down from $6.1 million the previous week, but 5.2 times higher than the same week in 2019. Of the CARES Act programs, Pandemic Extended Unemployment Compensation payments (PEUC) were $1.5 million, with payouts for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) at $3.6 million and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) at $27.5 million.
Total benefit payments to laid-off Idahoans attributed to COVID-19 have reached $714 million. Unemployment insurance regular benefits make up $167 million of the total, with PEUC benefits at $14 million, PUA benefits at $42 million and FPUC payments at $491 million.