South Carolina jobless claims spike by 1,600% since last week

A state-level report released Thursday confirms South Carolina's economy has already been hit hard with the continued spread of the coronavirus.

Initial unemployment insurance claims data released by the state Department of Employment and Workforce for the week ending Saturday showed about a 1,600% increase from the previous week's tally.

A total of 31,054 residents who both live and work in South Carolina filed an initial claim last week, according to the release. That's almost the same number of jobless claims filed over the first 11 weeks of 2020 combined, according to The Associated Press, including a big spike after the temporary jobs created around Christmas.

The prior's week's state count was 1,996.

Economists and lawmakers had anticipated that the state's hospitality and tourism industries would be severely curtailed in the crisis as state and local governments have told residents to stay in their homes and avoid groups. Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster banned dine-in service at bars and restaurants across the state, encouraging food takeout and delivery options instead.

If all claims were approved, the number of people without a job in South Carolina would climb 55% from the January unemployment figures when the state DEW reported about 56,500 people out of work and a jobless rate of 2.4%.

More than 450 cases of the virus have been confirmed across the state with nine deaths, including two in Sumter.

As might have been expected, tourism-heavy Horry County, home of Myrtle Beach, had the most filed initial claims last week of the state's 46 counties with 5,258.

Charleston County, a larger and more diversified economy but also along the coast, was second with 4,183 claims filed.

Major-metropolitan job hub counties Greenville and Spartanburg in the Upstate and Richland and Lexington, which represent Columbia, followed next.

With the largest workforce in the tri-county area, Sumter had 316 claims filed, according to DEW data. With considerably smaller labor forces, Clarendon totaled 68 claims, and Lee had 25.

Kershaw County, just north of Sumter and considered "the epicenter" of the coronavirus with still the highest number of confirmed cases to date in the state, had 338 claims filed last week. That was more than Sumter County even though Kershaw has a significantly smaller labor pool than Sumter. Kershaw's population is about 65,500, while Sumter's is about 106,500.

The U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday the U.S. had a record 3.28 million initial claims filed last week.