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 April 4 – 10, there were 5,045 initial insurance claims for unemployment that were filed.

That’s an increase of 76 initial claims filed from the previous week of March 28 to April 3, where 4,969 claims were filed.

On their intrastate map showing initial unemployment insurance claims by counties, Greenville County had the highest number of claims in the state with 445.

According to the department, since March 15, 2020, 878,298 total initial unemployment insurance claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.

The department has paid out a total of more than $5.8 billion since March 15 of last year 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
• Lost Wages Assistance program

The U.S. Department of Labor says the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits went down to 576,000 last week.

Officials say the week prior reported 719,000 applications for unemployment benefits.

According to the department, insured unemployment was 3,731,000 for the week ending April 3, which is an increase of 4,000 from the week prior.