Jobless claims drop, state ends its extended benefits
Unemployment remains elevated amid pandemic
The number of Tennesseans seeking unemployment benefits declined last week to the lowest level so far this year, but initial jobless claims still remained elevated as a sizable number of people keep losing jobs to the viral pandemic.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said 11,497 newly laid off Tennesseans filed for unemployment benefits last week, including 325 people in Hamilton County and another 108 unemployed workers in Bradley County. Although down from the 12,050 jobless claims filed across Tennessee a week earlier, the state continued to pay $75.2 million in jobless benefits last week to 105,670 unemployed Tennesseans still qualifying for jobless benefits.
Nationwide, 779,000 Americans filed new jobless claims last week, down from 812,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It left the weekly figure at its lowest point in two months but nevertheless elevated: Before the virus erupted in the United States in March, weekly applications for jobless aid had never topped 700,000, even during the Great Recession.
Nonetheless, unemployment has dropped in Georgia enough to end the extended jobless benefits the state has provided since last spring. Effective Saturday, any eligible payments for week ending dates after Feb. 6 will no longer be payable under the extended benefit program.
“Georgia has experienced a decrease in the unemployment rate over the past few months as the economy has stabilized and people are getting back to work,” Georgia Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said Thursday. “However, the timing is not optimal as we continue to implement the many complicated programs passed by Congress. Every time a change is made, we must reprioritize programming to meet the requirements issued by the U.S. Department of Labor.”
Unemployment in Georgia dropped to only 4.5% in October and remained below the U.S. averages at 5.7% in November and 5.6% in December. That was sufficient to fell below the threshold for the extended benefits program to remain available for payments.
The decline in applications for unemployment aid over the past few weeks suggests that layoffs have eased slightly as several states have loosened restrictions on restaurants, bars and other service firms, causing these businesses to retain workers.
And the pace of new confirmed viral infections is slowing, a trend that has lowered hospitalizations across the country. Average daily reported cases have fallen 30% in the past week to about 140,000 — one-half the peak level of a month ago.
Even so, the persistence of elevated layoffs remains a cause for concern, economists say.
“Total initial claims fell, but the magnitude is still a huge problem,” said AnnElizabeth Konkel, an economist for Indeed.com, the job postings website. “We continue to see the effect of the coronavirus on the labor market. At no point has it let up.”
All told, 17.8 million people were receiving unemployment benefits in the week that ended Jan. 16, the latest period for which data are available. That’s down from 18.3 million from the week before.