NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Mike Osborne) -- Nearly 20,000 more Tennesseans filed their first claims for unemployment compensation last week.
The state Department of Labor says about 622,000 Tennessee workers have now been laid off or furloughed since the pandemic began in March.
The number of people filing initial claims has fallen for ten weeks in a row from a high of 116,000 initial applications during the week of April 4. However, the pace of the layoffs remains stubbornly high, hovering between 20,000 and 30,000 initial claims in each of the last six weeks.
The number of workers continuing to receive jobless benefits has fallen for the past eight weeks, indicating some Tennesseans are returning to work.
If you are one of the nearly 300 thousand Tennesseans continuing to receive unemployment benefits, remember the $600 federal portion of that aid is scheduled to end July 31.
If you’re still out of work at that point your check will be reduced to the Tennessee benefit alone. The maximum amount the state pays is 275 dollars a week. State aid is available for a total of 26 weeks.
The state reports that last week it paid out some $288 million dollars in jobless compensation.
