Iowa’s continuing weekly unemployment claims increased over the last week. According to Iowa Workforce Development, for the week ending July 4th, the continuing claims were at 134,215 and for the week ending July 11th it rose to 137,036 people. There were 11,125 who filed for initial unemployment in Iowa last week. Unemployment insurance benefit payments totaled $33,351,310.81 last week.

People who may have exhausted the additional 13 weeks of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation may be eligible for State Extended Benefits that were announced in June. Claimants should continue to file weekly claims so they can be reviewed to determine eligibility, which may provide up to an additional 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. For more information on the State Extended Benefits click here.

It has been 19 weeks since Iowa confirmed its first cases of COVID-19, and as of Thursday the state has confirmed 36,866 cases with 27,360 or 74% recovered, and there have been 777 Iowans who have died.