Unemployment claims jump in Cape County

More first-time unemployment claims were filed in Cape Girardeau County last month than in all of 2019, reflecting the first wave of layoffs and business closings related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data released this week by the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, 2,012 Cape Girardeau County residents submitted first-time claims for unemployment benefits in March, more than in any prior month in generations.

The previous record for unemployment claims in the county over the past 12 years was in December 2008, the beginning of the 2008-2009 recession, when 738 claims were filed.

“This shouldn’t be a shock to anybody,” said John Mehner, president of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce. “We went from the tightest job market in 50 years to the highest number of filings for unemployment since the Great Depression.”

Cape Girardeau County had an average of 157 initial unemployment claims a month in 2019 and a total of 1,885 claims for all of last year. In January, 169 first-time unemployment claims were filed by Cape Girardeau County residents, followed by 139 in February when the county’s unemployment rate was listed at 3.2%.

Cape Girardeau County’s unemployment rate in March climbed a full percentage point to 4.2% after workers began losing jobs halfway through the month. Statewide, the unemployment rate in March rose to 4.5%.

“Just wait until next month’s numbers,” Mehner said. April’s unemployment data will reflect a full month of COVID-19’s impact on the nation’s economy. “The April numbers will be even higher.”

Brian Gerau, president of the Jackson Area Chamber of Commerce, agreed.

“We have to brace ourselves for those numbers,” he said, adding “6% of Missouri’s population has filed for unemployment, and that’s scary.”

Gerau said it will take months, and perhaps longer, to bring the area’s economy back to “gradually ease people back into as much normalcy as we can” once the coronavirus outbreak subsides.

“This is going to take a long-term strategy to get back to some sense of normalcy,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is open the state back up 100% and see numbers (of coronavirus infections) spike back up. We’re walking a fine line.”

Scott, Perry and Bollinger counties also saw significant jumps in unemployment claims in March.

Perry County had averaged 36 claims a month over the past 12 months, but in March that number ballooned to 1,596. Scott County received 769 claims in March after averaging 125 a month since March of last year and in Bollinger County, the number of unemployment claims increased from an average of about 30 a month to 249.

The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations reports nearly 60,000 Missourians submitted first-time claims for unemployment benefits during the week ending April 18 and during a five-week period beginning March 15 there were nearly 400,000 filings.

During that same time frame, approximately 26.5 million Americans filed unemployment claims, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

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