The TN Department of Labor and Workforce Development reports the largest jump in new jobless claims was set in 1982 with a record of 695,000 new claims. Now, Tennessee is within about 3,100 claims of beating that 1982 number due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.  

Since March 15th (2020), which was when the COVID-19 Pandemic started hitting businesses and households, Tennessee has seen 691,898 new unemployment claims.

Out of the nearly 700,000 new unemployment claims, 275,421 of them were approved and paid.

In Rutherford County, new jobless claims started at 1,007 at the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The highest number of new claims in Rutherford County came in at 16,359. Broken down, that number amounts to about 5% of the Rutherford County population filing for unemployment (population 332,280).

Across the state and according to the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, $260,779,300 was paid to those who were approved for payment. The unemployment funds came from both the state of Tennessee and the Federal Government. The Volunteer State paid through the “Coronavirus Relief Fund.”

More: On March 14, 2020, Tennessee had 2,702 new claims for unemployment. By April 4, 2020, those numbers climbed to a peak of 116,141 NEW unemployment claims being filed. The new filings for jobless claims then started going down and by June 13, 2020 dropped to 19,925 new unemployment claims being filed. On June 20, 2020, the numbers started to climb and by July 4, 2020 a total of 25,843 NEW unemployment claims were filed in Tennessee.