FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - The ranks of Kentucky residents applying for unemployment benefits rose by more than 103,000 last week as job losses mount with much of the economy in lockdown from the coronavirus.
Last week’s numbers raised the five-week total to about 500,000 Kentuckians - or about one-fourth of the state’s civilian workforce - filing for jobless assistance. Businesses spanning cross-sections of the economy have shut their doors or scaled back in an effort to contain the virus.
On Thursday, the state’s largest university, the University of Kentucky, announced it was furloughing about 1,700 workers.
The number of Kentuckians filing for jobless assistance last week was down by more than 12,700 from the prior week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday.
Nationally, roughly 26 million people have filed for jobless aid in the past five weeks.
Kentucky has hired more than 1,000 new workers to help process the unprecedented surge of unemployment insurance claims, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said this week. Coleman also doubles as the secretary of the state’s Education and Workforce Development Cabinet.
“We have processed twice as many claims since March 8 as we did in all of 2019,” she said.
After getting an infusion of federal funding, Kentucky recently started distributing an additional $600 per week for people receiving unemployment aid.
Gov. Andy Beshear is reaching out to local leaders and business groups, asking for their input in formulating plans to gradually reopen the state’s economy.
The state will move in phases toward a “new normal” until a coronavirus vaccine is developed that allows people to return to “the old normal,” the Democratic governor said at his daily briefing Thursday.
“It’s going to be gradual, it’s going to be phased,” he said. “Not everybody and everybody’s profession is going to be able to open up in the very short term. Doing it right is about saving lives and making sure that employees will be safe and people they serve will be safe.”
Coronavirus testing across Kentucky has increased significantly in recent days, Beshear said. Nearly 43,000 people have been tested in Kentucky since the pandemic began, he said. The governor has listed increased testing as one of the guidelines to meet before reopening the economy.
Beshear reported six more virus-related deaths Thursday, raising the statewide death toll to at least 191 since the pandemic began. Total virus cases approached 3,500 statewide as he announced more than 160 new cases. More than 1,330 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Kentucky, he said.
For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in weeks. For some, it can cause life-threatening illness.
At the University of Kentucky, officials said the furloughs will be of varying lengths, with some employees out for a week while others may be furloughed through July 4.
UK President Eli Capilouto said 1,500 of the furloughed workers are full- or part-time employees at UK Healthcare. The rest work at UK’s dental clinics, dining and transportation services and an events facility.
“Our hope is to have those impacted community members rejoin our work as soon as possible,” Capilouto said in a news release. “We are making these decisions - and others like them, if we have to - thoughtfully and compassionately, as we seek to protect the institution and its capacity to serve for the long term.”
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