IOWA, USA — 5,498 initial unemployment claims were filed last week in Iowa, a decrease of 252 (4.38%) from the previous week.
4,881 initial claims for the week of March 14-21 were by people who work and live in Iowa, and 617 were by individuals who work in Iowa but live outside the state.
"For the week ending March 20, 2021, nearly 57.1% of claimants indicated their claims were not COVID-19 related, which is a decrease from 58.1% the previous week," Iowa Workforce Development said in a release.
684,000 Americans filed for unemployment last week.
$13,335,180.21 in unemployment insurance benefits were paid out in the state last week, a weekly decrease of $781,664.09 (5.53%).
Continuing claims for the week were 38,165, a decrease of 1,980 (4.93%) from the previous week.
IWD said the following industries had the most claims:
- Industry Not Available - Self-employed, Independent Contractors, etc (1,098)
- Manufacturing (834)
- Construction (389)
- Transportation & Warehousing (366)
- Retail Trade (348)
Additional data released for last week:
- A total of $25,977,600 in FPUC benefits was paid, which include retroactive payments and reauthorized payments that went into effect on Dec. 27, 2020. Since April 4, 2020, a total of $1,858,262,533 in FPUC benefits has been paid.
- A total of $3,780,344 was paid in PUA benefits. Since April 13, 2020, a total of $221,816,138.54 in PUA benefits has been paid.
- A total of $12,626,467.26 in benefits has been paid in PEUC benefits this week. Since May 27, 2020, a total of $286,507,194.42 in PEUC benefits have been paid.
The Associated Press contributed to this report