Jobless claims keep trending down in Missouri

ST. LOUIS — Workers submitted another 8,100 unemployment claims in Missouri last week, the lowest number of new claims in the state since the pandemic began in March.

Another 11,000 workers dropped off of regular unemployment as of the week ended Sept. 12, bringing the number of people on the Missouri jobless rolls down to 75,000. Regular unemployment in the state has dropped rapidly in recent weeks as people return to work and exhaust benefits that became far less generous after the expiration of the $600 federal unemployment supplement at the end of July.

Still, the state figures released Thursday remain high for this time of year due to the lingering economic weight of the coronavirus. And including the number of Missourians who remain on Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the federal program for self-employed workers that has shown little decline in the number of beneficiaries, the number of people on unemployment in the state is similar to the depths of the Great Recession.

As of Sept. 5, Missourians on the Pandemic Unemployment program, which releases data a week later than regular unemployment numbers, stood at 57,000, a reduction of just 1,500 from the prior week.

In Illinois, initial claims fell 4,300 to 23,000 last week. But the week before, Sept. 12, regular unemployment rolls grew by 4,100 to 512,000. Those on the federal PUA program increased slightly, by 1,600, to 116,000 during the week ended Sept. 5.

Jacob Barker • 314-340-8291 @jacobbarker on Twitter jbarker@post-dispatch.com