Tennessee Unemployment Claims Still High Because of COVID-19, New Numbers Show

 

Nearly 75,000 Tennesseans were on record as filing unemployment claims as of April 11, according to new numbers the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development put out on their website Thursday.

Residents in Northern Middle Tennessee filed 34,643 claims, the highest regional number, while residents in East Tennessee filed 16,669 claims, according to the TDLWD data.

According to the TDLWD’s other numbers, residents in these regions filed the following number of claims:

• Greater Memphis: 12,216

• Northwest Tennessee: 2,233

• Southwest Tennessee: 2,692

• Southern Middle Tennessee: 10,488

• Upper Cumberland: 4,052

• Southeast Tennessee: 10,442

• Northeast Tennessee: 4,626

• West Tennessee Mobile American Job Center: 38

• Middle Tennessee Mobile American Job Center: 374

• East Tennessee Mobile America Job Center: 41

TDLWD officials said in a separate press release Thursday that, despite the current spike in unemployment across Tennessee, March’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remains relatively unchanged, only increasing 0.1 of a percentage point to 3.5 percent.

“The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development did not begin to see an unprecedented increase in unemployment claims until the third and fourth weeks of March. The survey the federal government conducts to determine the number of unemployed workers in each state took place in Tennessee between March 8 and 14. This explains why the current unemployment rate does not reflect the struggle many Tennesseans are currently facing,” TDLWD officials said.

“Nationally, unemployment increases nearly a percentage point in March. The seasonally adjusted rate for the United States is up by 0.9 of a percentage point to 4.4 percent, when comparing it to February’s rate of 3.5 percent.”

The statewide unemployment rate for April 2020 will come out on May 21, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. Central Time, TDLWD officials said.

TDLWD officials said in a separate press release this week that the state of Tennessee has started paying approved unemployment claimants their first installment of the $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefit, in addition to their Tennessee Unemployment Compensation (TUC) benefit.

On Tuesday, April 14, the state distributed benefit payments of close to $94 million to financial institutions for approximately 110,000 unemployed Tennesseans. Most claimants will receive their directly-deposited payment on Wednesday, April 15. The number of payments is projected to increase throughout the week and will likely exceed 150,000, the press release said.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].