State's unemployment rate dips slightly

Missouri nonfarm employment showed little change last month compared to March, according to data released last week by MERIC, the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, which said the state's seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate decreased by a tenth of a percentage point. The April rate was 4.1%, compared to 4.2% the previous month.

Employment, seasonally adjusted, increased by 600 jobs in April compared to March, but the state's labor market showed an increase of almost a quarter-million jobs between April 2020 and April 2021.

Meanwhile, the number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits is gradually falling, according to new data released last week by a nationwide human resources organization.

According to SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, 444,000 workers filed for new jobless benefits during the week ending May 15, approximately 34,000 fewer than the week before and the lowest level of first-time claims since March 2020, just before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations said 6,489 Missourians submitted initial unemployment claims during that same week, marking the first time there were fewer than 7,000 jobless claims in the state in more than a year.

It was also the third consecutive week the number of initial claims for unemployment benefits declined in Missouri. At one point early in the pandemic, it was not uncommon for more than 100,000 Missourians to file for first-time unemployment benefits within a one-week period.

The state department of labor will update weekly county-by-county first-time unemployment claims data for the month of April as early as this week.

Although the number of jobless claims nationwide has been going down, the latest SHRM sampling of employers indicates many of them continue to deal with labor supply shortages. "Some economists have pointed to enhanced unemployment benefits and expanded eligibility for benefits as factors contributing to these shortages, especially in the service sector," according to a news release issued by SHRM on Thursday.

At least 21 states, including Missouri, have announced an early end of federal jobless benefits related to the pandemic this summer, about two to three months before they were due to end in September.

According to SHRM data, about 16 million members of the U.S. workforce are receiving some type of unemployment assistance. That number includes roughly 11.7 million workers who are enrolled in emergency programs such as the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program.

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program provides assistance for "gig" workers and those who are self-employed while the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program offers 24 additional weeks of benefits.

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