Initial Unemployment Claims Continue to Drop in County, State

Initial claims for unemployment by Montgomery County residents continued to drop. During the week that ended Oct. 24, 2,282 Montgomery County residents filed initial claims. The previous week, which ended Oct. 17, 2,703 Montgomery County residents filed initial unemployment claims.

During the week that ended Oct. 10, 3,228 initial claims were filed, according to the Maryland Department of Labor.

Statewide, the number of initial claims filed last week dropped by more than 3,000. During the week that ended Oct. 24, 19,946 Marylanders filed initial claims for unemployment. During the week that ended Oct. 17, 23,203 Marylanders had filed initial unemployment claims. During the week that ended Oct. 10, 28,388, Maryland residents had filed.

The national employment picture in September showed that more than half the jobs lost during the global pandemic have been restored, according to U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.

In September, 877,000 private sector jobs were added back. Large gains were made in lower wage jobs in retail and leisure and hospitality, Scalia noted. Manufacturing added 66,000 jobs, its largest increase since June, he said in a news release.

“More than half the jobs lost from the pandemic have now been restored, and the third quarter ended with a 7.9 percent unemployment rate, half the 15.8 percent third quarter unemployment rate projected by the Congressional Budget Office in May,” he wrote.

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Initial Unemployment Claims Down In County, State

About Suzanne Pollak

Suzanne is a freelance reporter with Montgomery Community Media. She has over 35 years professional experience writing for newspapers, magazines, non-profit newsletters and the web.

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