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 January 17 – 23, there were 5,043 initial insurance claims for unemployment that were filed.
That’s a decrease of 1,640 initial claims filed from the previous week of January 10 – 16, where 6,683 claims were filed.
That week recorded another decrease in initial unemployment insurance claims filed from the week of January 3 – 9, which had 8,635 claims filed.
On their intrastate map showing initial unemployment insurance claims by counties, Horry County had the highest number of claims in the state with 486.
According to SC DEW, since March 15, 830,581 total initial claims have been filed in the Palmetto State.
The department has paid out a total of more than $5 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 reported the number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell but remained at a historically high 847,000.
Officials say this is a sign that layoffs are continuing as the pandemic continues.
The Labor Department says the claims dropped by 67,000, from 914,000 the week before.
According to the department, nearly 4.8 million Americans are continuing to receive traditional state unemployment benefits.
