Reno Reporter

Over the past year and a half, the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy and caused the unemployment of millions of Americans across the country. 

Nevada is the seventh-best state in the country to be unemployed and collect unemployment benefits, according to an index of information published by the U.S. Department of Labor and analyzed by The Center Square.

The benefits that are offered by Nevada's program were much-needed over the course of the pandemic. The percentage of unemployed people receiving benefits in Nevada increased from 29.7% in 2019 to 87.9% in 2020, according to The Center Square. The national unemployment recipiency rate in the same time period increased from 27.7% to 77.6%. The current unemployment rate in Nevada is 8.0%, 1.9% higher than the national average of 6.1%.

The average weekly unemployment benefit payout in NV is $672 when factoring in the federal $300 increase, according to The Center Square.

A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed that two-thirds of workers who were laid off during the pandemic were making more on unemployment than they were at their jobs.

Statistics reveal that obtaining unemployment benefits is easier for Nevadans relative to other states, with fewer occupations exempted from receiving benefits while employed, for example, as an elected official, according to this Department of Labor report. This report was used in The Center Square analysis as well.

A Reason Foundation study found that cutting the unemployment benefit duration, as 26 states have recently done by cutting off federal benefits, can account for as much as a 61% increase in employment.