Last week, 5,200 residents filed initial claims, according to the Maryland Department of Labor (DOL). That is an increase of more than 400 new claims as compared with the prior week’s filings, which ended on Jan. 23. During that week, 4,844 residents filed initial claims. During the week that ended Jan. 16, 4,503 county residents filed initial claims.
Initial claims filed throughout the state also rose. During the week that ended Jan. 30, 50,418 Marylanders filed initial unemployment claims, The prior week, which ended June 23, 44,333 Marylanders filed initial unemployment claims. During the week that ended Jan. 16, 41,596 initial unemployment claims were filed.
According to the state DOL, Maryland gained 4,600 jobs and the unemployment rate dropped to 6.3% in December. This is the lowest unemployment rate in the state since the beginning of the pandemic, according to DOL.
