The S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce announced Jan. 25 it had surpassed $5 billion in benefits distributed in 10 months to assist workers who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
SC DEW estimates it has distributed an average of $500 million every month since March 2020. The $5 billion represents assistance in programs including:
- Unemployment insurance from the state UI Trust Fund
- Federal pandemic unemployment compensation from the CARES Act
- Pandemic unemployment assistance from the CARES Act
- Pandemic emergency unemployment compensation from the CARES Act
- Lost wages assistance
- Extended benefits
- Federal pandemic unemployment compensation from the Continued Assistance Act
- Pandemic unemployment assistance from the Continued Assistance Act
- Pandemic emergency unemployment compensation from the Continued Assistance Act
Following guidance from the United States Department of Labor, SC DEW implemented the three programs included in the federal Continued Assistance Act.
In addition to implementing programs, SC DEW has reported an increased unemployment rate from 4.4% in November 2020 to 4.6% in December 2020 with 3,646 jobs lost.
As of the time of this report, SC DEW has had 825,538 initial unemployment claims since March 2020 and 6,683 initial claims from Jan. 10 through Jan. 16.
For more information, visit dew.sc.gov/tools-resources/data-statistics.
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