More than 8,200 residents of Denton County submitted unemployment claims in the week ending April 11 as the economic fallout of coronavirus-inspired stay-at-home orders and business closures continues.
The new numbers, which are unofficial statistics released this week by the Texas Workforce Commission, bring the countywide total to 34,381 in the four-week span of March 15 through April 11. In the two weeks before that, before COVID-19 began substantially affecting the way of life in the county, about 1,200 people submitted unemployment claims.
During the same time last year, weekly unemployment claims in Denton County usually totaled 300-400.
The current numbers are expected to continue to rise as the stay-at-home order remains in place. Nationwide and around Texas, people have reported long wait times and extreme difficulty in getting their phone calls answered to process their unemployment claims. The TWC has recommended call times, split up by area code, to better spread out the call volume.
If you have had trouble getting through, don’t worry about losing out on funding. Coronavirus-related claims are eligible to be backdated.
For more information about how to file for unemployment, click here.
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