(The Center Square) – Like much of the rest of the country, Minnesota is witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases and a proportional increase in unemployment as measures are taken to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Minnesota’s 40% increase in unemployment claims last week continues a trend, indicating the state’s unemployment will remain a problem throughout the remainder of the year. According to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor, there was an increase of 8,000 initial claims filed between the weeks ending Nov. 14 (15,428) and Nov. 21 (23,326).
Minnesota’s total unemployment claims for the week ending Nov. 21 was 118,282, nearly 14,000 claims more than the previous week’s 104,687 claims.
The DOL reported Minnesota was among five states with the largest increases in initial unemployment claims the week ending Nov. 14, with 3,608 new filings. Those numbers reflect a better showing than Louisiana (+33,573), Massachusetts (+9,859), Texas (+5,216), and Kentucky (+3,770).
The largest decreases measured in the same time period were in Illinois (-20,581), Washington (-8,904), New Jersey (-7,990), Florida (-7,045), and Georgia (-4,201).
The DOL reported the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims nationwide was 778,000, an increase of 30,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 748,000.
The four-week moving average was 748,500, an increase of 5,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 743,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.1 percent for the week ending November 14, a decrease of 0.2 percentage points from the previous week’s unrevised rate.
Bruce Walker
Bruce Walker is a regional editor at The Center Square. He previously worked as editor at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s MichiganScience magazine and The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News.
