Welcome to our new web site!

To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.

During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.

State Experiences 36K Spike in Unemployment Claims Due to COVID-19

National Claims Up 3M from Last Week

Posted

NASHVILLE (March 26, 2020) — Tennessee experienced an unprecedented spike in new initial unemployment claims according to data released this morning by the United States Department of Labor.
For the week ending March 21, 2020, Tennesseans filed 39,096 initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits. The week prior, the state received 2,702 new unemployment claims. The latest figure represents a nearly 20 fold increase in week-to-week claims.
Unemployment rates in Carroll County have increased from 4.7 percent in December 2019 with 567 unemployed of the 12,179 labor force to 5.8 percent in January, with 701 unemployed out of 12,069 laborers.
Henry County unemployment rates have increased from 4.1 percent, 610 unemployed of a 14,775 labor force in December 2019 to 5.3 percent, 757 unemployed of the 14,282 labor force in January.
Weakley County’s rate increased from 3.3 percent, 582 unemployed of the 16,762 labor force in December 2019 to 4.1 percent, 657 unemployed of 16,140 in the labor force in January.
Nationwide, Americans filed 3,283,000 new unemployment claims, an increase of 3,001,000 from the previous week’s revised national level.
Week ending March 21, 2020, at a glance:
New: 39,096

Last week: 2,702
Difference: 36,394
Northwest Tennessee had 511 new claims in February. The latest unemployment numbers were not available at press time. County numbers will be released Thursday. The spike in claims during the past 7 days will not be reflected in the data until mid-April.
Currently, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) is processing these claims as quickly as possible to determine eligibility and distribute benefit payments.
TDLWD has added additional resources to help process the influx of new claims, including training 200 Department employees to shift their job tasks to unemployment. Soon, nearly one-third of TDLWD employees will work to provide customer service and process new claims. The Department is currently expanding capacity and exploring other methods to increase its workforce.
The maximum weekly unemployment benefit in Tennessee is $275 before the deduction of federal taxes. Claimants receive this benefit through a debit card or direct deposit to a bank account.
In Executive Order No. 15, Governor Bill Lee temporarily suspended Tennessee’s one-week waiting period to receive benefits. Typically, the state pays the first week of benefits after four consecutive weekly certifications. During this temporary suspension, the state will pay the first week of benefits as soon as an unemployment claim is approved.
The state will release the latest new unemployment claims data each Thursday at 8:30 a.m. CT beginning Thursday, April 2.