NEWS BRIEFS: More apply for unemployment in last 3 weeks than last year

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Staff reports  |  More than 180,000 people in South Carolina have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March than filed in all of 2019.  It’s a stark reminder, Charleston City Paper editor Sam Spence writes, of the crushing economic impact of physical distancing measures in South Carolina to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 infection.

South Carolina tallied just over 121,000 initial unemployment claims in all of 2019, averaging about 2,300 per week, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures.

Unemployment numbers released Thursday show 85,018 people filed claims for the week ending April 4, bringing the total for the past three weeks to 180,928, according to the state Department of Employment and Workforce. The increase represents a more than a 4,000 percent increase compared to the week ending March 14.  Read more in the City Paper.

Also in recent news:

Matching food gift.  Former Ingevity president and CEO Michael Wilson and his wife Pam are providing a dollar-for-dollar matching gift up to $150,000 to the Lowcountry Food Bank for coronavirus food relief.  The donation will be used to buy and distribute “Fueled by Fresh” relief boxes of fresh produce and shelf-stable food, the organization said.  “Pam and I understand this pandemic has brought a much greater demand for food, but also significant challenges in getting it distributed,” Michael Wilson said in a press release. “Families and individuals are experiencing lost wages and difficulty in accessing food – even more severely in rural areas, and with school closures — in our own backyard. These factors bring an increased reliance on the Food Bank. 

Farmers face tough times, too.  The shuttering of restaurants and schools has lashed South Carolina farmers. The exact toll will be unknown for months but some fear the downturn in markets from the coronavirus pandemic will cause farms already on the edge to suffer or close.

“The last five years have been insane,” said Clemson University agribusiness professor Adam J. Kantrovich said. “Hurricanes, freezes, the trade war and now this.”

He said the state’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and potentially the virus itself added more hurt that may not be relieved by aid packages.  Some federal aid is already expected for farmers, but state disaster aid was held up after a one-day legislative session this week ended without an agreement on funding state government or releasing $180 million in pandemic aid.  But amid the challenges, there could also be opportunity to strengthen and bolster locally grown foods, according to Kantrovich and South Carolina Farm Bureau media liaison Stephanie Sox. Read more here.

About those gun-store exemptions in executive orders.   What do gun shops and grocery stores have in common? According to Gov. Henry McMaster’s “home or work” order this week, both are permitted to stay open during the current public health crisis. This week, reporter Heath Ellison at the Charleston City Paper took a hard look at why gun stores are allowed to keep operating. The purported reason is in part due to a Department of Homeland Security guidance that exempts gun stores from closures. Read more.

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