New jobless claims surge to 16000 last week as more Mainers become eligible for benefits - Press Herald

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New jobless claims surged last week in Maine as thousands of workers rushed to take advantage of new benefits for workers that normally cannot access unemployment insurance.

About 16,100 Mainers filed initial unemployment claims last week, bringing the total number of people out of work since March 15 to 124,600. That figure represents roughly 18 percent of Maine’s civilian labor force.

Roughly 10,500 of those new claims were attributed to the implementation of Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal program that allows self-employed workers, contractors and other workers to access jobless benefits for the first time. Maine began allowing those workers to file claims last Friday.

The Labor Department said the 10,500 claims were filed in just two days, and that thousands more have been filed since that will be reflected in next Thursday’s report.

Nationally, 3.2 million Americans filed jobless claims last week. The total number of workers laid off or furloughed since the coronavirus crisis began tops 33 million.

This story will be updated.

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