S.C. unemployment insurance payments top $4 billion

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The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce has now paid more than $4 billion in a combination of state and federal unemployment benefits as the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into its seventh month.

For the week ending Sept. 12, 4,283 people filed initial unemployment insurance claims — a decrease of 830 claims from the previous week, according to the agency. In the past 26 weeks, 739,643 initial claims have been filed in South Carolina.

“While we are still looking at initial claims that are double what they were pre-COVID (2,093 for claim week ending March 14, 2020 and 1,889 for claim week ending March 7, 2020), our state continues to bounce back,” Dan Ellzey, DEW executive director said in a news release.

Ellzey said that beginning Sept. 24, weekly initial claim numbers will no longer be provided in a news release but instead available online in a data dashboard.

Richland County led the state with 438 initial claims for the week ending Sept. 12. Greenville County had 418, Horry County 299, Charleston County 286 and Lexington County 230.