Mecklenburg County unemployment claims top 100,000 amid COVID-19
More than 100,000 people in Mecklenburg County have applied for unemployment since COVID-19 started to hit the state’s economy in March, data released Thursday by the state show.
Statewide, just under 495,000 people applied for unemployment insurance in April, about 60,000 of them in Mecklenburg County, the North Carolina Department of Commerce reported. Combined with the March data, that’s a total of 102,804 people in the county who were out of work. Eighty percent of the local claims were related to COVID-19.
The state office that handles unemployment has been flooded with claims since the start of the coronavirus-related job losses. Many applicants have reported payment delays and long hold times on the phone lines. Gov. Roy Cooper replaced the head of the unemployment agency Wednesday amid the complaints.
Industry impacts
Though the leisure and hospitality sector initially shed the most jobs, the latest data show that other industries are starting to feel the effects of the shutdown. More than 1 in 5 applicants in April were employed in the trade, transportation and utilities sector, while 17% were in leisure and hospitality.
“It’s hitting the lower-paid industries at a really disproportionate rate,” said Chuck McShane, senior vice president of economic research at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. “That’s really affecting people who didn’t have much of a cushion to begin with.”
Workers in education/health services and professional/business services each made up 11% of the unemployment claims.
“You’re starting to see some of the bigger companies cut back on extras,” McShane said.
The majority of claimants statewide and locally were women, according to the data. And 40% of the Mecklenburg County workers who applied for unemployment in April were black, an increase of five percentage points from March.
Mecklenburg County’s workforce is 26% black and 49% female, according to an Alliance analysis.
Reopening effects
The staggering figures come as the state’s unemployment rate surpassed 12% in April.
As parts of the economy start to reopen, the blow could start to soften. But it’s still unclear how many people will still have a job to go back to.
“It’s going to take much longer to regain all of the ground that we’ve lost,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “But the decline in economic activity — we’re probably past the bottom.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2020 at 5:00 PM.
