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The
Illinois Department of Employment Security said Thursday that
15,595 Illinois workers filed initial claims for regular
unemployment benefits during the week that ended March 20. And
while that number would normally be considered high, it was down
78 percent from the week before. It was down 88 percent from the
same week a year ago, at the start of the pandemic, when more
than 126,000 people filed first-time claims.
That decline was in line with a national trend. The U.S.
Department of Labor reported that the total number of initial
claims nationally fell by more than 42,000, to 241,745.
IDES also announced Thursday that the state’s preliminary
unemployment rate dropped three-tenths of a point in February to
a seasonally adjusted 7.4 percent as the economy added 21,100
nonfarm jobs. Those numbers reflect activity for the week of
Feb. 12.
That rate was 1.2 percentage points higher than the national
rate and it was 3.8 percentage points higher than February 2020,
just before the pandemic forced a shutdown of major parts of the
economy.
“IDES and the Pritzker administration remain committed to
supporting claimants and families with the services they need as
the state moves toward a full reopening and the economy begins
to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Deputy Governor Dan
Hynes said in a statement. “IDES continues to serve an
unprecedented number of claimants while working on process
improvements that make navigating unemployment and job-seeking
services as easy as possible.”
The biggest job gains in February were in the leisure and
hospitality industry, which added 32,300 jobs. That sector was
among the hardest hit during the pandemic because of
restrictions placed on bars and restaurants, hotels, airlines
and the cancellation of many conventions. Compared to a year
earlier, the sector was still down by more than 185,000 jobs.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in the week that
ended March 13, there just over 225,000 Illinois workers
receiving continuing unemployment benefits, a 7.6 percent
decrease from the prior week.
The agency also reported that 4,993 Illinois workers filed
initial claims last week for Pandemic Unemployment Insurance,
the federally-funded program for gig workers, independent
contractors and others who don’t qualify for regular
unemployment. That was down by more than 16,000, or 76 percent,
from the prior week.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
news service covering state government and distributed to more
than 400 newspapers statewide. It is funded primarily by the
Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation.
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