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 December 27 – January 2, there were 9,328 initial insurance claims for unemployment that were filed.

That’s an increase of 4,777 initial claims filed from the previous week of December 20 – 26, where 4,551 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 2,351.

SC DEW says since March 15, 810,220 total initial claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.

The department has paid out a total of more than $4.8 billion since March 15 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 fell slightly to 787,000 for last week, a decrease of 3,000 from the previous week.

According to the department, the number of people receiving state regular state unemployment aid fell 125,000 to 5.1 million.