The Federal Department of Labor published its weekly report on unemployment amid the crisis caused by the coronavirus, which indicates that for the week of May 30, 7,139 new claims were received for unemployment in Puerto Rico.
From March 16, 2020, when the quarantine began on the Island, until May 16, 2020, the number of applicants for unemployment insurance in the Department of labor and human resources (DTRH) amounted to 275,478, so the total figure is as of May 30 is 282,617.
This figure includes only Puerto Rico unemployment insurance applicants. Besides, there are the applicants of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Program (SPIKE, for its acronym in English). Today the DTRH reported that 70,000 claimants of the PUA program received their retroactive payment.
Likewise, the secretary of the DTRH, Briseida Torres, indicated in a written communication that thousands of people have visited the servicarros that the agency established for the delivery of unemployment documents.
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The official stressed that in the past 48 hours, 5,000 people have been served through the servicarro system in the different document delivery centers, located in Ponce, Mayagüez, Fajardo, Manatí and the Convention Center, in Miramar.
On the other hand, Torres indicated that they have disbursed more than $ 1.1 billion in unemployment benefits since last April 1, between the regular unemployment insurance programs and the PUA program.
Number of applications decreases in the United States
Meanwhile, the federal Department of Labor reported a decrease of 249,000 applications in the United States from the revised level of the previous week.
“The seasonally adjusted advance unemployment rate was 14.8 percent for the week ended May 23, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the revised rate the previous week,” the federal agency explained.
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