North Carolina had last week its first weekly increase in initial unemployment-insurance benefit claims since early April, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday. North Carolina had 5,083 claims for the week that ended July 10, compared with a revised 4,879 the previous week. The state was 23rd in the nation in the number of unemployment filings, up two spots from last week. By comparison, the stateâs highest weekly total for claims related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been 172,745 for the week that ended March 28, 2020. The American Rescue Plan Act extended federal UI benefit programs through Sept. 6. The extended programs include: pandemic emergency unemployment compensation (PEUC); pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA); federal pandemic unemployment compensation (FPUC); and mixed earners unemployment compensation (MEUC).