Des Moines, Iowa — The number of initial claims in Iowa, filed between Sunday, May 24, and Saturday, May 30, was 6,920. There were 6,271 initial claims by individuals who work and live in Iowa, and 649 claims by individuals who work in Iowa and live in another state according to information released by Iowa Workforce Development.
This is a decline of nearly 50% from the previous week’s total initial claims. The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims for May 24-30 was 165,195, down 13,000 from the previous week.
Unemployment insurance benefit payments totaled $51,043,465.89 for the same week.
The industries with the most claims during the period were Manufacturing (1,897); Health Care & Social Assistance (784); Industry Not Available – Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc. (553); Retail Trade (511); Accommodation & Food Services (462)
A total of $105,700,800 in Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits was paid during the week of May 24-30, 2020. Since April 4, 2020, a total of $766,791,000 in FPUC benefits has been paid.
A total of $4,606,876 was paid in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits during the week of May 17-23, 2020.
IWD began processing Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) benefits on May 27, 2020 and so far a total of $7,546,816.98 in PEUC benefits have been paid.
Employees and employers who have questions regarding returning to work should review the Frequently Asked Questions for each group on our website. Assistance for employers can be found here: https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/sites/search.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/files/content-files/FAQs%20Employers%2005.05.20-2.pdf.
Employees can find assistance here: https://www.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/sites/search.iowaworkforcedevelopment.gov/files/content-files/FAQs%20Workers%2005.30.20_0.pdf
For more information on the total data for this week’s unemployment claims, please visit
https://www.iowalmi.gov/unemployment-insurance-statistics
