Anne Arundel crosses 60,000 jobless claims

Another 3,786 Anne Arundel County residents filed a jobless claim last week, bringing the county total to 61,060 unemployment benefit claims filed since the coronavirus shuttered businesses in March, according to state labor department data.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced further reopening guidelines for parts of the economy Wednesday, including restaurants allowing outdoor dining, but the lasting effects of a monthslong shutdown are expected to be grave as the country lurches into a deep recession.

Statewide, 48,963 more claimants filed for emergency financial assistance and more than 662,639 Marylanders have sought unemployment benefits since the pandemic swept the state.

Marylanders join an additional 2.1 million people who applied for unemployment last week, a figure that tops the country’s total claims at 41 million people, though not all claimants are still unemployed. Around 21 million people are receiving financial assistance, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The national jobless rate was 14.7% in April, the highest since the Great Depression and many economists expect it will near 20% in May.

Hogan, a Republican, said during a news conference Wednesday that the federal government was partly to blame for how efficiently unemployment benefits have been processed in recent weeks.

“They’ve changed guidelines at the federal level 12 times since the program came out a few weeks ago,” Hogan said.

The governor said that a requirement making people refile their claims weekly has also led to “tremendous difficulties” and that unemployment law could keep a significant number of applicants from qualifying for benefits. He added that while the state has processed more than 400,000 claims and added 250 more employees to help assist residents over the phone, “it’s still not helping everybody.”

One of the biggest problems claimants have faced is the inability to get a labor department employee on the phone, rather than an automated message or dropped call, to address specific issues with their account or weekly filings. The state department of labor said it will soon allow customers with smartphones to online chat with help techs while they wait for assistance by phone. The labor department is testing this function this week.