FILE -- National Health Service (NHS) workers are tested for Coronavirus (Covid-19) at a drive through testing site on April 07, 2020 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Department of Workforce Services says the number of newly filed unemployment claims in Utah is down this week.
The Department reports that over the week of April 12th to the 18th there were 19,751 new claims filed which is down from the 24,000 that filed the week before.
Unemployment Insurance Division director Kevin Burt says that while that is still a record number the fact that it is going down is encouraging.
“We are encouraged to see another decrease in new claims filed, though we continue to receive them at record levels,” Burt says.
Salt Lake county accounted for just over 40% of those newly unemployed, followed by Utah (13.4%), Weber (9.6%) and Davis (9.4%) counties.
The DWS says the three hardest-hit industries over the last week were Office and Administrative Support (13.4%), Sales and Related Occupations (11.4%), and Food Preparation and Serving (9.0%).
These numbers come as nationally an additional 4.4 million Americans have lost their employment due to the coronavirus, bringing the total number of US jobs lost since the virus began to 26 million.