SC DEW: Decrease in initial unemployment insurance claims last week

(Courtesy: SC DEW/Facebook)

SOUTH CAROLINA (WOLO) – The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce reported a decrease in initial unemployment insurance claims for last week.

According to the department, during the week of December 13 – 19, there were 3,583 initial insurance claims for unemployment that were filed.

That’s a decrease of 140 initial claims filed from the previous week of December 6 – 12, where 3,723 claims were filed.

On their intrastate map showing initial unemployment insurance claims by counties, Horry County had the highest number of claims in the state with 424.

SC DEW says since March 15, 796,341 total initial claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.

The department also says the recent COVID-19 relief legislation passed by Congress will bring more changes to helping the unemployed workers, if President Donald Trump signs off on it.

Below is a summary of the high-level points of the bill that extends federal CARES Act unemployment insurance (UI) programs into 2021:

• An additional $300 per week for all claimants receiving unemployment
  benefits after claim week ending December 26th through claim week ending
  March 13, 2021.
• The number of weeks for an individual on the Pandemic Unemployment
  Assistance (PUA) program has increased from a previous total of 39 weeks to
  50 weeks.
• The number of weeks for an individual on the Pandemic Emergency
  Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) program has increased from a total of
  13 weeks to 24 weeks.
• Reimbursable employers will continue to receive the federally funded 50/50
  split for COVID-19 related unemployment claims until March 14, 2021.

The department has paid more than $4.7 billion in a combination of the following:

• Regular state Unemployment Insurance benefits
• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (For the self-employed and others)
• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program ($600 per week)
• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program (Extension of benefits for 13 weeks)
• Extended Benefits (Additional 16 weeks of benefits after PEUC)

The U.S. Department of Labor reported the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits decreased to 803,000 last week.

According to the department, some 20.3 million people were still receiving some form of unemployment benefits through all government programs as of the week ending Dec. 5.