The number of South Dakotans filing for initial jobless claims appears to be getting back to about where it was before the pandemic.

The Department of Labor and Regulation reported 346 initial weekly claims for state unemployment benefits  Sept. 6-12.

This is a decrease of 239 claims from the prior week’s total of 585.

For comparison, there were between 291 and 468 new claims filed on any given week in January and between 159 and 223 new claims in any given week in February.

The latest number of continued state claims is 6,511 for the week ending Sept. 5, a decrease of 2,654 from the prior week’s total of 9,165. This indicates the number of unemployed workers eligible for and receiving benefits after their initial claim. The current figure is it about double what it averaged the first two months of the year.

The unemployment insurance trust fund balance was $120.7 million on Sept. 13.