This chart shows weekly unemployment filings in Tennessee since 2018 (blue), as well as continued claims, which represent how many Tennesseans are receiving ongoing aid (gray).
For the second week in a row, Tennessee has seen an uptick in the number of people newly applying for unemployment, with more than 22,000 filings last week.
New claims had been slowly trending downward from April highs, when more than 115,000 Tennesseans applied in a single week. But now they’re up about 10% from mid-June, even as many businesses around the state have reopened.
Statewide, more than 250,000 people are relying on unemployment assistance, which has been heavily bolstered by $600 federal CARES Act payments. Those are set to expire at the end of July.
It’s unclear whether Congress will extend the expanded unemployment assistance.
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