Pennsylvania's jobless claims near 2 million

Almost 2 million Pennsylvanians have filed initial unemployment claims since Gov. Wolf ordered the shutdown of non-essential businesses in mid-March, according to the latest figures from the state.

The state has seen 1.9 million workers file for first-time jobless claims as of May 20, even though the number of initial claims have dropped from about 196,000 for the week ending April 12 to around 60,000 the week ending May 16, the state Department of Labor and Industry said. From May 17-20, there were more than 40,000 claims, which was on pace to hit 60,000 for the week.

While the initial unemployment claims have dropped over the past six weeks, “it’s still three-to-four times higher than normal,” said Chris Briem, a regional economist for the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Social and Urban Research. There were just 4,200 initial jobless claims filed statewide on March 15. That skyrocketed to more than 51,000 claims on March 16.

The lingering impact of the covid-19 shutdowns in the seven-county Pittsburgh region can be seen in the number of workers — nearly 200,000 — who have filed continuing claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending May 16.

That’s close to 16% of the region’s total civilian labor force, Briem said.

More than half of the region’s jobless workers — 102,000 — are in Allegheny County.

While the region’s economic activity over the past week has increased with southwestern Pennsylvania moving to the yellow phase in Wolf’s three-tiered plan to return to normal, Briem said he was not sure how many workers are going from collecting unemployment benefits to getting paychecks.

“Some jobs will come back quickly, but not all,” Briem said. Even with the resumption of normal economic activity, Briem said it “still will be below what we were” before covid-19 restrictions took effect.

While admitting the pace of the economic rebound will be hard to predict, “it could take quite a while,” Briem said.

The covid-19 effect on the state’s jobless rate for April will be revealed Friday. The April unemployment rate for the Pittsburgh region will be available until June 2.

Briem predicted the jobless rate will be around 16%.