CARSON CITY — Initials claims for unemployment insurance increased by three percent in January compared to January 2016 claims, according to figures released Thursday by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
In January, 14,167 initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits were filed in Nevada. Compared to December’s total, initial claims were up 8.5 percent, likely meaning Nevada has reached its seasonal peak in initial claims activity, said Alessandro Capello, an economist with the Research and Analysis Bureau of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
Initial claims tend to increase on a seasonal basis during the fall and winter months, and then fall during the spring and summer.
The 12-month average, which best shows the overall trend in claims, remains steady at 11,435.
“January saw the first year-over-year increase in initial claims since March 2015 and is the first month with a total greater than 14,000 in over a year,” Capello said. “The increase could, at least in part, be explained by December’s especially low claims total. December’s total was the lowest in the month in over 20 years, possibly indicating that some seasonal layoffs were delayed until January. With January likely being the seasonal peak in claims, it is anticipated that over the next several months initial claims will decline.”
Other measures of unemployment insurance activity remain at or near post-recession lows, with the benefits exhaustion rate at 38 percent and the average duration of benefits at 14 weeks.
An initial claim represents the first stage of filing for unemployment benefits and is therefore most closely related to the number of people who have recently lost their jobs, not the overall level of unemployment. Initial claims peaked during the recession at 36,414 in December 2008, and the low point for initial claims was 9,358 in September 2016.
