The number of people in Montgomery County who filed initial unemployment claims last week decreased 2.7% from a week earlier, for a total of 7,638.
Across the state, the unemployment rate increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.9% in April — three times what it had been in the three prior months, 3.3%.
Seasonal adjustment is a “technique that measures and removes the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month,” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics has not released the April unemployment rate for Montgomery County yet.
Since the first week of March, 92,760 county residents have filed initial claims.
During the second week of May, there was a 24% decrease in the number of claims, which followed a 46% decrease a week earlier.
The week before that, there was an increase spike of 242%.
The hike that week was partially because the state began reporting additional claims through two federally enacted unemployment programs — Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC).
Of the claims filed last week, 5,215 were regular initial claims. The rest of the 2,423 initial claims were made through PUA and PEUC.
Montgomery County had the second highest number of claims filed last week, behind Prince George’s County which had 8,246 initial claims last week.
Statewide, there were 48,963 initial jobless claims last week — 33,836 were regular claims and 15,127 were PUA and PEUC claims.
Briana Adhikusuma can be reached at briana.adhikusuma@moco360.media.