ARKANSAS (KNWA/KFTA) — More than 10,000 Arkansans filed for unemployment for the first time for the week ending May 23, according to the Department of Labor’s weekly report.
Last week’s filing were adjusted upward by 963 initial claims for a total of 11,427, according to the DOL.
Arkansas does not have any numbers for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims. However, 6,633 have filed for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) claims for the week ending May 9.
PEUC, PUA & PUC OVERVIEW

Nationally, more than 2.1 million filed initial unemployment claims. Since late March, about 41 million people have applied for aid.
COVID-19 continues to impact the number of people filing for unemployment for the first time.
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY COVID-19 DATA 5/28/20
Globally there are 5,716,570 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 356,000 deaths. The U.S. has 1.7 million confirmed cases, more than any country in the world. On Wednesday, May 27, the death count hit 100,000. Today there are 100,442 thousand deaths.
AR: 10,662 filed for unemployment — week ending 5/16