Indiana is seeing a spike in unemployment insurance claims since the coronavirus pandemic was declared a public health emergency.
Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce President Erin Predmore says the state’s spike in unemployment is reflected locally.
She says the most recent data comes from the week of April 3—and over 1,400 Monroe County residents filed claimsthat week. The week before that over 1,600 Hoosiers filed for unemployment.
“The highest filing that we’ve had in comparison to that was in the 2008-2009 downturn,” she says.
She says the highest number of claims for unemployment for a week during the 2008 downturn was 421.
That means four times as many people in Monroe County are filing for unemployment now, compared with numbers from the worst week of 2008.
Usually a person has to be healthy and be looking for work to receive benefits.
But in March the US Department of Labor issued new guidelines that allow states to grant benefits to those laid off or quarantined because of the pandemic.
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