The latest national Unemployment Insurance (UI) Weekly Claims Report is available at http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm this morning.
Report dated October 08, 2011 reflects our unemployment numbers for week-ending October 01, 2011. During this week, 2,453 initial claims were filed in Utah compared to 1,780 the prior week. Is this 38% increase cause for alarm?
No, it comes down to the “quarter-change” effect. The amount of wages paid during the base period determines:
- Do you have enough wages to establish a claim?
- If so, what is your weekly benefit amount and how many weeks are you eligible?
The base period is comprised of all qualifying wages paid during the first four of the last five completed quarters. If that doesn’t meet the requirements, then we consider an alternate base period using the last four completed quarters. Every calendar quarter, the base period used to determine eligibility for a new claim changes. If you filed a new UI claim in September 2011, the base period is April 2010 to March 2011. If you wait to file a new claim until October 2011, the base period changes to July 2010 to June 2011, allowing you to use more recent wages.
Historically, we see an increase in initial claims filed around the beginning of every January, April, July, and October as people who did not earn enough wages to qualify previously or who may have postponed filing to qualify for a higher benefit amount now file. Whether or not this is beneficial to the claimant depends on a variety of factors and is best evaluated on an individual basis. Further details regarding eligibility are available at http://jobs.utah.gov/ui/jobseeker/uielig.asp.
The numbers listed below are based on the 4-week moving average
- 1,952 initial UI claims filed (increase of 166 from the prior week and decrease of 457 from same week in 2010)
- 17,827 continued UI weeks claimed (decrease of 265 from the prior week and decrease of 4,891 from same week in 2010)
- 12,384 continued EUC08 weeks claimed (decrease of 88 from the prior week and decrease of 8,313 from same week in 2010)
