The number of Montgomery County residents filing initial claims for unemployment climbed slightly, rising to 1,137 during the week ending Aug. 22.
During the week ending on Aug. 15, 926 county residents filed initial claims, according to the Maryland Department of Labor.
Statewide, there was a decrease. During the week ending Aug. 22, 11,875 Marylanders filed initial claims. The previous week, 14,191 had filed initial claims, according to the Maryland DOL.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that Maryland had added 53,000 jobs in July and that the state’s unemployment rate was 7.6 percent, which is lower than the national unemployment rate.
According to the internet site, WalletHub, Maryland ranked 29th among states and the District of Columbia for fastest recovery since the start of the global pandemic. WalletHub also noted that Maryland had a 154.7 percent change in unemployment when comparing the week of Aug. 17, 2020 to the week of Aug. 19, 2019.
