Initial claims for unemployment edge back up in Kentucky even as economy reopens
The number of new initial claims for unemployment payments in Kentucky edged back up slightly last week, though it was still down considerably from previous highs as the state’s economy slowly started to reopen.
First-time claims filed in the week ending May 23 totaled 53,738, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That was up from 47,321 in the week ending May 16, according to the agency.
The number of claims topped 100,000 a week over a four-week period beginning in late April.
With the latest claims, there have been more than 844,000 initial requests for unemployment payments filed in Kentucky since mid-March.
That is equal to 40 percent of the civilian workforce Kentucky had in February, indicating the severity of the financial bloodletting from the clampdown on businesses aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The official unemployment rate for April was 15.4 percent in Kentucky and 14.7 percent nationally, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those were the highest levels in generations for the state and nation.
Those numbers differ from the unemployment rate suggested by the number of initial claims because the two figures are based on different information.
The unemployment rate is calculated with information collected in telephone surveys and is a snapshot of a period in April, while the initial claims number is a total of all first-time applications for benefits.
Not everyone filing a claim is counted as out of work in the unemployment rate calculation.
“It’s different inputs getting to these different numbers,” said Eric Kim, head of U.S. states ratings for Fitch Ratings.
Kentucky had the highest number of claims as a percentage of its labor force in reports earlier this month by Fitch and the Economic Policy Institute.
The state has struggled under the avalanche of jobless claims, leaving some people still seeking payments weeks after initially applying.
Jim Bradley, an Indiana man who worked as a consultant for a Louisville company until the job ended in early April, said this week that he applied for unemployment April 9 and still hasn’t been approved.
A week or so ago he finally got to talk with a staffer who told him he needed to speak to someone else, a Tier 2 employee who can work on more complicated claims. That’s as far as he’s gotten.
“It’s just been really awful,” Bradley said.
The state has about 10,000 unresolved unemployment claims from March and 30,000 from April, according to JT Henderson, spokesman for the Education & Workforce Development Cabinet.
That showed progress from last week, when Henderson said the number of outstanding claims from March and April totaled 54,000.
State officials have said the remaining unresolved applications are complicated by issues such as missing information and interstate claims.
The state has worked to improve the unemployment phone system and trained extra workers to handle claims to try to fix the problems, according to state officials.
Kentucky isn’t the only state that’s had trouble dealing with an unprecedented number of claims.
Florida, for instance, had to fall back to using paper applications at one point, according to a report by Kevin Rinz, a U.S. Census Bureau economist.
No state was fully prepared for the rapid, dramatic increase in claims, Kim said.
“The volume is exponentially higher than what they’re used to,” Kim said.
Helena Herald, who runs a pet-grooming service in Jackson, in Breathitt County, said she ultimately received unemployment payments in late April after four weeks of trying, along with back pay for the time the payments were delayed.
She advised patience and persistence for those out of a job and still trying to get approved.
Herald was able to leave the unemployment rolls after Gov. Andy Beshear cleared the way for several types of businesses to reopen beginning May 11.
She’s been working 10-to 12-hour days to catch up with the backlog in demand from the seven weeks she was off.
“We have been swamped,” Herald said.
Herald said it was scary to be without a paycheck and that she relied on family members to help her. But she supported the shutdown to stem the spread of COVID-19 cases, saying she has family members who would be at higher risk for complications from the respiratory illness.
“I can always look for another job, but I can’t replace my family,” she said.
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 9:58 AM.
