The number of Tennesseans getting jobless benefits last week dropped to the lowest level in more than six months as the job market continued to bounce back and the size of unemployment benefit checks continued to shrink.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday that the state paid jobless benefits to 199,684 unemployed Tennesseans last week – the fewest number since March. The average jobless claimant in Tennessee received $271.38 in weekly benefits last week, or less than a third of what the typical unemployed person received in July before the $600-a-week federal supplements ran out.
Last week, 9,839 Tennesseans filed initial claims for unemployment, including 457 newly laid off workers in Hamilton County. Nationwide, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dipped last week to a still-high 840,000, evidence that layoffs remain elevated seven months into the pandemic recession.
“Some of these new layoffs are coming from firms that didn’t want or didn’t have to lay people off at first,” said Constance Hunter, chief economist at KPMG. Now, “they have no choice but to start reducing their workforce.”
Disney said last week that it would cut 28,000 jobs. And American Airlines and United Airlines combined furloughed 32,000 employees last week. Airlines had been barred from cutting jobs as long as they were receiving federal aid, which expired this month. The American Hotel & Lodging Association has said that nearly three-quarters of hotels say they’ll have to lay off more workers without further financial aid.