The $600 weekly additional unemployment benefit ends today in Iowa. The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation benefits stop, as there have been no changes made to the program by Congress.

Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend said the number of continuing claims from last week to this week saw a significant decrease saying, “While one week is not a trend, it is the biggest decline in continuing claims we have had in a single week since the beginning of the pandemic. We hope we continue to see similar declines in coming weeks as more and more Iowans return to work.” The number of continuing weekly unemployment claims for July 12-18 dropped almost 18,000 from the previous week to 116,810. There were also 9,505 initial claims of unemployment.

People who have used the additional 13 weeks of Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation benefits may be eligible for state extended benefits and should continue to file weekly claims to be reviewed for state eligibility.