Area jobless claims reach historic highs

More people filed for unemployment benefits in Cape Girardeau County during March and April than in all of 2019.

And all of 2018.

And all of 2017.

And part of 2016.

Combined.

Data released Friday by the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations revealed 5,011 Cape Girardeau County residents filed for unemployment benefits in April, the first full month of Missouri's state of emergency and "stay at home" directive during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Combined with the 2,012 claims filed in the county in March brought the two-month total of first-time claims to 7,023.

That number raised the county's unemployment rate to 9.5% as of April 30, more than double the March jobless rate of 4.2%, according to the state labor department. In February, the last month before the coronavirus outbreak spread into Missouri, Cape Girardeau County's jobless rate stood at 3.2%.

In the 36-month period from January 2017 through December 2019, a total of 5,758 unemployment claims were filed in Cape Girardeau County for an average of just under 160 claims a month. In March and April, the county averaged almost 160 claims each business day, Monday through Friday, as businesses closed -- most temporarily, but many permanently -- and more than a half-million Missourians were laid off, furloughed or fired.

Statewide, the labor department reported another 27,207 Missourians submitted unemployment claims during the most recent one-week reporting period, bringing the total number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits to 591,183 in the 10 weeks between March 15 and May 23. That's an average of 59,118 a week.

During the previous 10-week period, 45,442 claims were filed for an average of 4,544 a week, less than one-tenth the recent weekly average.

April first-time unemployment claims and jobless percentages in Bollinger, Perry and Scott counties were as follows: Bollinger, 526 claims, 9.6% unemployment; Perry, 1,022 claims, 14.8% unemployment; Scott, 2,053 claims, 7.6% unemployment.

Jobless rates for other Southeast Missouri counties as of April 30 were:

• Butler -- 10.8%
• Dunklin -- 8.7%
• Iron -- 8.5%
• Madison -- 10.2%
• Mississippi -- 5.4%
• New Madrid -- 7.4%
• Pemiscot -- 8.9%
• Ripley -- 12.3%
• St. Francois -- 10.0%
• Ste. Genevieve -- 8.5%
• Wayne -- 8.5%.

Taney County, which includes Branson, Missouri, had the highest unemployment rate of any Missouri county at 24.5% as of April 30.

May unemployment data for Missouri counties will not be available from the Missouri Department of Labor until late June.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, Missouri's preliminary, seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in April was 9.7%, up from 3.9% the previous month.

Nationally, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Thursday 2.1 million Americans submitted first-time claims for unemployment benefits during the week that ended May 23, bringing the total number of initial filings to more than 40 million since mid-March and raising the nation's unemployment rate to about 25%.