DOVER, Del. (AP) - The pace at which Delawareans are filing unemployment claims amid the coronavirus epidemic is continuing to decline steadily but still remains at an unprecedented level.
The Delaware Department of Labor reported Thursday that more than 6,180 initial unemployment claims were filed last week. That’s down from about 7,750 in the previous week and marks the fifth straight weekly decline in jobless claims.
Last week’s total is less than a third of the number of filings in both the final week of March and the first week of April.
More than 84,000 Delawareans have filed for unemployment benefits since March 15, including more than 30,000 in March.
The previous monthly record for unemployment claim filings in Delaware over the past three decades was a little more than 9,600 in January 2002.
Officials said earlier this week that the state has paid $140 million in unemployment benefits over the past six weeks. That’s roughly equal to the balance that remained in state’s unemployment trust fund as of April 16. The state started the year with $172.6 million in the trust fund.
Labor Secretary Cerron Cade said earlier this week that officials were not yet concerned about the state’s ability to provide direct assistance to workers, noting federal assistance that Delaware has received. At the same time, he acknowledged that solvency of the trust fund is an issue.
“The question of the solvency of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund was a problem before this crisis and will continue to be an issue until the State of Delaware addresses our unemployment tax system,” Cade wrote in an email.
Despite concerns about the trust fund’s solvency, state lawmakers last year passed a law increasing the maximum weekly unemployment benefit from $330 to $400. Analysts estimated that the change would cost $34 million over three years.
The legislation, sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, also froze the taxable wage base used by employers to determine what portion of an employee’s wages are subject to unemployment insurance tax assessments until Oct. 29 of this year. Lawmakers said the freeze would allow the Division of Unemployment Insurance and the Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council to determine whether to revise the taxable wage base formula.
“We could not have imagined then how important their work would be right now,” said Cade, adding that officials hope to have recommendations for the General Assembly and Democratic Gov. John Carney later this year.
Had the freeze not been implemented, the tax rate on employers would have fallen last October pursuant to triggers in the state code.
“If that would have happened, it would have further reduced the amount of revenue that would have been generated into the trust fund,” Cade noted.
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