COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – The latest unemployment numbers released by the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW) Thursday show Horry County is now behind a county in the upstate for initial claims.
SCDEW said there were 87,686 initial unemployment claims filed in the week ending on April 11 by those who both live and work in the state. This is an increase of about 3.14% from the previous week’s 85,018 claims and an increase of about 4,293% from the week ending on March 14, which saw 1,996 claims filed.
SCDEW also released an updated county-by-county map of intrastate claims, which are filed by those living and working in SC.
This map shows Horry County had 7,930 intrastate claims for the week ending on April 11, which is down from the 10,098 intrastate claims filed in the week ending on April 4. During the week ending on April 4, Horry County saw the highest number of claims filed in the state.
Greenville County leads the state in the latest numbers, with 10,378 intrastate claims filed in the week ending on April 11.
Below is a list of the latest intrastate unemployment claims data for other counties in the News13 area:
- Florence County had 2,186 intrastate claims filed in the week ending on April 11, which is up from the 1,685 claims filed during the week ending on April 4.
- Darlington County saw 1,084 intrastate claims filed in the week ending on April 11, which is up from the 849 claims filed during the week ending on April 4.
- Georgetown County had 709 intrastate claims filed during the week ending on April 11. This is down from the 981 claims filed during the week ending on April 4.
- Chesterfield County saw 544 intrastate claims filed for the week ending on April 11. This is a decrease from the week ending on April 4, which saw 649 claims.
- Marion County had 453 claims filed during the week that ended on April 11, which is an increase from the 356 claims filed in the week that ended on April 4.
- Marlboro County saw 382 claims filed for the week ending on April 11. This is the same from the week ending on April 4.
- Dillon County had 371 claims filed during the week that ended on April 11, which is up from the 237 claims filed in the week that ended on April 4.
“The agency has processed 268,614 claims in the 4 weeks since the pandemic began. This is a 4,293.09% increase from the claim week ending March 14, 2020,” SCDEW also says. “$114 million has been paid in $600 FPUC/CARES Act benefits AND regular South Carolinas UI benefits from Sunday-Tuesday of this week alone. This is before the additional funds for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) have even reached the state.”
“We have been able to surge our call center staff from 46 customer service representative to 292 and more staff are being trained and added to the phones each day. We are continuing to train and anticipate bringing that number to more than 500 CSR’s by end of next week,” SCDEW added. “
“While call center hours for incoming calls – 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday thru Friday – have not changed, staff continue to work extended hours each week day and through weekends making outbound calls. These call backs respond to individuals captured in the queue and those whose claims require follow up from a claims specialist. A chat bot feature has been added to the website to help answer unemployment and COVID-related questions. More details will be released soon on this.”
LATEST HEADLINES:
