Nevada unemployment claims in May continue to fall
Submitted by editor on Thu, 06/18/2015 - 12:49pm
Initial unemployment insurance claims filed in Nevada during the month of may amounted to 10,963, a 12.5 percent decrease compared to a year ago, according to figures released Thursday from Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
The 12-month moving average, which better captures the overall trend in clams, remains stable at 14,380 claims per month. This is the 13th consecutive month where this trend measure has been between 14,300 and 14,625 claims, said Bill Anderson, chief economist for Nevada’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
“This May’s decline relative to last year may be overstated due to several technical factors,” Anderson said.
“Considering this, a better barometer may be comparing the aggregate of the first five months of 2015 to the same period last year. Through May, initial claims totals are down 3.8 percent from 2014. This decline is being driven by a 7 percent decrease in new initial claims for unemployment, suggesting longer-term workers are experiencing less job loss.
Combining the declines in claim totals with improvements in benefit activity measures such as the number of weeks claimed and the exhaustion rate of benefits, it is fairly evident that Nevada is in a better place than it was a year ago.”
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 tend to increase on a seasonal basis during the fall and winter months, and then fall during the spring and summer. Initial claims peaked during the recession at 36,414 in December 2008, and the low point for initial claims was 10,963 in May 2015.
