NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Mike Osborne) -- Tennessee’s unemployment numbers continue to show marked improvement, but still remain distressingly high.
The state Department of Labor released new numbers Thursday morning showing the number of initial jobless claims made last week fell to just over 10,000 applications. That’s down 14 percent from the previous week.
The number of out-of-work Tennesseans continuing to file for unemployment compensation also fell again last week, dropping to just under 209,000 claims. That’s the lowest number of Tennesseans reporting themselves jobless since the second week of April.
Well over 781,000 Tennesseans have been laid-off or furloughed since the pandemic began in March.
State labor officials say that during the week ending Aug. 8, Tennessee paid out 267,711 claims for a total of more than $196 million in compensation.
