Those who expect better economic news in 2021 are likely to look away from the new year’s first jobless claims report – which saw a surprising increase in initial unemployment claims. South Carolina politicians should pay close attention to the number, as it emphasizes the need to correct the state’s anti-competitive tax code.
While initial national claims for unemployment have remained stable at a high level (787,000) during the week ending January 2, 2021, claims in the state of Palmetto skyrocketed unexpectedly.
According to federal data released by the SC Department of Employment and Workforce (SCDEW), initial claims for unemployment benefits more than doubled last week – rising to 9,328 in 4,551 the previous week. that is a 104.9 percent increase – and the highest reading for this widely watched metric in twenty weeks (since the week ending July 25, 2020).
Prior to this week’s reading, claims remained below 5,000 in twelve of the previous fifteen weeks.
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All told, there was 810,220 initial unemployment claims since March 15, 2020 – which is when society basically shut down for weeks on end during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
To put that number in perspective, a little less than 2,100 the initial claims were made during the week ending March 14, 2020 – which, as we often observe, is probably the last “normal” week that the country’s economy will see for some time.
The worst of the carnage was inflicted during the week ending April 11, 2020 – when a record 87,686 initial claims have been filed. During the first ten weeks of blocks – from March 14 to May 23, 2020 – the average of the initial claims 54,054 per week.
Claims have not fallen below the 10,000 threshold by July – and were starting to approach pre-pandemic levels in late November.
Unfortunately, this trend has now reversed …
(Click to view)
(Via: SCDEW)
Some good news? The total number of paid applicants has dropped considerably in recent weeks – with 70,944 South Carolina workers receiving benefits during the week ending January 2. This number is still high, but it marked a drop of more than 6,000 complaints from the previous week.
In other words, most of the people who were forced to rely on unemployment insurance during the impact of the blockages managed to escape unemployment insurance.
Any additional good news? Last week’s total benefit payment timed at $ 18.68 million – that fell more than $ 2 million from the previous week. This number has also seen steady declines in recent weeks.
Even so, since March 15, 2020, a surprising $ 4.8 billion in unemployment benefits were paid in South Carolina – including $ 1.1 billion state unemployment insurance (SD) fund.
Our view of all this data?
Obviously, the recent increase in initial claims is worrisome – and as we noted in our opening, this should encourage state lawmakers to rethink the many areas in which the South Carolina tax code is preventing their people.
This news outlet previously wrote about how South Carolina’s leaders needed to cut the state’s extremely high income and sales tax rates to be competitive in the new economy – where individual taxpayers and small businesses are the primary targets, not large corporations.
The State of Palmetto clearly cannot afford to continue its capitalist, crony-like approach to “economic development”, which has done nothing but enrich billionaires at the expense of small businesses.
-FITSNews
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