SC DEW: Increase in initial unemployment insurance claims last week
(Courtesy: SC DEW/Facebook)
SOUTH CAROLINA (WOLO) – The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce reported an increase in initial unemployment insurance claims for last week.
According to the department, during the week of January 31 to February 6, there were 6,700 initial insurance claims for unemployment that were filed.
That’s an increase of 2,035 initial claims filed from the previous week of January 24 – 30, where 4,665 claims were filed.
On their intrastate map showing initial unemployment insurance claims by counties, Anderson County had the highest number of claims in the state with 1,374.
According to the department, since March 15, 2020, 841,946 total initial claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.
The department has paid out a total of more than $5.2 billion since March 15 in a combination of the following:
- Regular state Unemployment Insurance benefits
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
- Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program
- Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program
- Extended Benefits
The U.S. Department of Labor says the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week to 793,000, showing that job cuts remain high despite a substantial decline in new viral infections.
According to the department, last week’s total declined from 812,000 the previous week. That figure was revised higher from the previously-reported figure of 779,000.
Officials also say 20.4 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week that ended on January 23, which is an increase of 17.8 million reported the previous week.
