More than 600,000 Minnesotans have filed for unemployment since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the state has had 633,405 applications for unemployment insurance since March 16. That number represents a little more than 20 percent of the state’s workforce, Fox 9 reported Wednesday.
As of Thursday, both Hennepin and Ramsey counties had an unemployment rate of 21 percent. Cook County’s workforce has been hit the hardest by the pandemic, with 32 percent of its labor force filing for unemployment. However, the county had zero confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Thursday. Cook County is one of just three counties in Minnesota with no confirmed cases.
Around 200,000 unemployment applications were filed in the first two weeks of the pandemic, but the state continues to see between 3,000 and 9,000 applications per day. Since the beginning of May, about 35,000 Minnesotans have filed for unemployment.
As of April 24, Minnesota had 536,742 unemployment claims, meaning the state has seen 96,663 new applications in the past two weeks.
March 18 saw the most applications in a single day when 32,176 Minnesotans filed for unemployment insurance.
Nationally, an additional 3.17 million Americans filed for unemployment in the week ending May 2, bringing the total number of unemployment claims filed over the past seven weeks to 33.5 million.
Gov. Tim Walz’s revised stay-at-home order allows retail establishments to conduct curbside pick-up and delivery. His office estimated that the revision would allow up to 30,000 Minnesotans to return to work.
Two lawsuits have been filed against Gov. Walz and his administration by small business owners who believe the coronavirus restrictions are unconstitutional.
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Anthony Gockowski is managing editor of The Minnesota Sun and The Ohio Star. Follow Anthony on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
