NC Today and What It Means: Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims

The NC Today dashboard serves as a monthly update on statewide labor market and economic conditions. But what do the numbers mean? Using the March 2022 update, this first blog post in a series of four provides context to statewide total private average weekly earnings.

Author: Chi Wong

Source: US Department of Labor- Employment & Training Administration  

Initial Unemployment insurance (UI) claims serve as an indicator of newly unemployed workers in the economy. It should be noted that not all claims, qualify for unemployment insurance; and only a portion of the unemployed receive monthly unemployment insurance payments. For March 2022, unadjusted initial UI claims were at 12,381, the lowest amount within the last year and since February 2020. Initial claims have been continuously decreasing since last November when they were at 31,710.

Taken together, these four series indicate recovery over the course of the pandemic and continued economic growth so far in 2022. To access the first blog on total private average weekly earnings, click here. To access the second post on residential building permits, click here. To access the previous blog on taxable retail sales, click here.

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