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 November 1 – 7, there were 3,627 initial insurance claims for unemployment filed.

That’s an increase of 229 claims filed from the previous week of October 25 – 31, where 3,398 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 349, while Richland County isn’t far behind with 319 claims filed.

SC DEW says since March 15, 774,175 total initial claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.

The department has paid more than $4.5 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 709,000 more workers lost their jobs and filed for unemployment insurance last week.

Officials say this is the lowest number since mid-March despite the number of COVID-19 cases going up in the United States.

According to the department, over 21 million people are still receiving some form of unemployment benefits.