NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s Administration says the state will stop publishing weekly unemployment numbers, even though initial jobless claims continue at a rate more than double pre-pandemic levels.
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development began publishing weekly unemployment numbers as pandemic induced layoffs and furloughs accelerated in March of last year.
The number of Tennesseans filing first time jobless claims jumped from less than 3,000 in one week in early March, to more than 116,000 during a single week in early April.
In total, 1.2 million unemployment claims have been filed since the health crisis began.
This past week nearly 6,500 state residents filed initial jobless claims. That’s 2.5 times a typical week’s applications for aid before the pandemic began.
