COLUMBIA, SC (WBTW) – The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce released new unemployment data, showing a decrease in initial claims for a sixth week.

For the week ending on May 23, 24,950 people filed initial unemployment insurance claims, which is a decrease of 4,496 initial claims from the previous week.

A total of 540,545 initial claims have been filed in SC in the last 10 weeks.

SCDEW says they’ve paid more than $1.5 billion in a combination of state unemployment and federal unemployment benefits.

The agency also released an updated map showing county-by-county numbers of initial intrastate claims filed in the week ending May 23. Intrastate claims are filed by those who both live and work in the state.

Below are numbers for initial intrastate claims filed in the week for counties in the News13 area:

A map showing initial intrastate unemployment insurance claims for the week ending on May (Courtesy- SC Department of Employment and Workforce)
  • Horry County: 1,847, down from the 1,999 initial intrastate claims filed the week before.
  • Florence County: 761, a decrease from the 769 initial intrastate claims filed in the previous week.
  • Darlington County: 336, down from the 363 initial intrastate claims filed in the week before.
  • Georgetown County: 331, a decrease from the previous week’s total of 339 initial intrastate claims filed.
  • Marion County: 262, an increase from the 203 initial intrastate claims filed in the week before.
  • Chesterfield County: 228, an increase from the 164 initial intrastate claims filed the previous week.
  • Marlboro County: 146, an increase from the previous week’s total of 136 initial intrastate claims filed.
  • Dillon County: 143, up from the 125 initial intrastate claims filed the week before.

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