MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee delivered unemployment payments to more than 314,000 people last week, as the number of new jobless claims continued to run much higher than normal during the response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
Stay-at-home orders from Gov. Bill Lee and city and county officials in mid-March led to business closures and hundreds of thousands of layoffs, as officials scrambled to stem the rise of COVID-19.
Businesses have begun to gradually reopen in recent weeks, and many workers have been able to return to their jobs. But the number of new weekly filings is still high, with some businesses remaining closed and employers cutting staff as they operate at a limited capacity due to social distancing rules.
More than 22,700 new unemployment claims were filed during the week ending Saturday, the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development said Thursday. That’s about 10 times the number of new claims filed the week before businesses starting closing, the unemployment report showed.
The 2,700 new claims filed the week ending March 14 is roughly the amount of new weekly claims received during a normal year, department spokesman Chris Cannon said.