South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce reported increase in the number of first-time unemployment claims

The number of first-time unemployment claims has been decreasing for months until now when the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce reported increase in the number of first-time unemployment claims.

For the week ending Saturday, the state reported 1,310 first-time unemployment claims.

Although there is up and down trend in the last couple of weeks after longer period of decreasing number, the claims have been below 2,000 since mid-September.

That said, two weeks ago there were 1,130 claims received in South Carolina.

Counties with the most claims reported are Horry County, Greenville County and Richland County adding 150, 130 and 98 claims respectively.

In the Lowcountry, Berkeley County reported the most with 78 claims, followed by Charleston County’s 61 and Dorchester County’s 56.

Colleton, Williamsburg, Georgetown and Beaufort Counties each reported fewer than 20.

For the last week that ended on Saturday, the state of South Carolina paid a total of $2.89 million in benefits. Since the pandemic began, the state has paid a total of $6.57 billion in federal and state benefits.

The South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce said the state’s unemployment rate for the month of September dropped a tenth of a point to 4.1% from August’s 4.2%.

The official numbers for the month of October are not released yet.