by Bruce Walker
New unemployment claims increased slightly in Minnesota last week, as well as overall total unemployment, running opposite from the falling national trend reported by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The week-over-week numbers reported for Minnesota the week ending July 4 show 19,886 new initial claims, an increase of 513 initial unemployment claims from the previous week’s 19,373 new claims.
Total unemployment claims in Minnesota for the week ending July 4 were 344,786 claims, up 7,404 from the previous week’s 337,382 claims.
The DOL also reported an estimated 1.3 million new unemployment claims were filed nationally in the week ending July 4, down 99,000 new claims from the previous week ending June 27.
According to nationwide DOL numbers, U.S. unemployment claims fell by 698,000 from the previous week. Continued claims still hover around the 18.1 million unemployment mark, or approximately 12.4 percent national unemployment.
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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.
Photo “Unemployment Office” by Burt Lum. CC BY 2.0.
