Initial unemployment claims dropped in the state last week after hitting a new high earlier this month as self-employed workers flooded the system and Maryland began to work through a backlog of claims.
New data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor show 44,491 Marylanders filed for unemployment for the week ending May 9, a decrease of 18,762 claims over the prior week’s revised figure of 63,253. Claims under the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which covers independent contractors, gig workers, sole proprietors and other self-employed people, dropped to 18,982 claims from 44,280 the prior week, the first time those numbers were reported.
Filings for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, which extends unemployment for an extra 13 weeks for those who have exhausted their benefits, totaled 1,112 last week. For the week ending May 2, 2,907 PEUC claims were filed.
That brings the week’s total claims to 64,585, down significantly from the 109,263 total claims filed statewide for the week ending May 2, which matched Maryland’s previous peak of 109,489 claims for the week ending April 4.