New unemployment claims drop 9% last week

New initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits in Idaho were down 9% last week.

In the week that ended Saturday, 4,924 new claims were filed, down 493 from the week before, according to the Idaho Department of Labor.

The number of continued claims also dropped last week by 6%, the ninth consecutive week of declines.

When looking at continued claims, Idaho for the past four weeks has seen an average of 32,450, the labor department said in a Thursday news release.

The department paid out $35.7 million in claims during the week of June 28 to July 4, down from $44.7 million the week of June 21-27.

A large share of the claims are based in four sectors:

Accommodation and food servicesManufacturingHealth care and social assistanceRetail

In the week ending in June 27, these sectors made up 53% of total claims.

Here's how last week's claims break down by age:

Under age 25: 21%Age 25-34: 27%Age 35-44: 19%45-54: 16%

By gender, women filed 52% of claims, while men filed 48%.

Idahoans in the three months since the state's COVID-19 emergency declaration have filed nearly three times more initial claims for unemployment insurance than in all of 2019.

Regular state unemployment benefit payouts were $6.8 million last week, down from $8.2 million the previous week, but 5.2 times higher than the same week in 2019.

As of July 4, total benefit payments attributed to COVID-19 layoffs reached $602.4 million.

Weekly claims by county and industry are available on Idaho’s claim data dashboard at lmi.idaho.gov/ui-weekly-claims.