Sevier News Messenger Sevier County News and Opinion
The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development moves to a staggered schedule for unemployment claimants completing their weekly certifications. This change will spread out the number of people certifying over three days, creating a more responsive experience for claimants using Jobs4TN.gov.
More than 324,000 Tennesseans have applied for unemployment benefits over the last four weeks, creating an unprecedented demand on the unemployment computer system. While claimants can certify any day of the week, most choose Sunday, putting a workload 21 times the normal rate of usage onto the system.
Starting Sunday, April 19, claimants will have access to complete their weekly certifications according to the last digit of their social security number.
- Sunday – 0, 1, 2, 3
- Monday – 4, 5, 6
- Tuesday – 7, 8, 9
- Wed. – Sat. – All numbers
When a claimant tries to certify and clicks the tab, if they are accessing the system on the correct day, it will allow them to proceed. If it is not the claimant’s scheduled day, the system will not let them certify.
If a claimant misses their scheduled day, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday are open certification days for any social security number.
Once a claimant completes the weekly certification process, their financial institution typically posts the benefit payment to their account or debit card within 48 to 72 hours.
For claimants who normally certify on Sunday, switching to a Monday or Tuesday certification will change the day of their weekly deposit.
Claimants must certify each week to ensure eligibility for benefit payments and to avoid the potential for overpayment. If someone does not certify for a particular week, they have five weeks to go back and do so, but the state is unable to process the payment for that week until they complete the missed certification.
The department posted the following notice for self-employed applicants on April 17, 2020: When PUA starts processing in a matter of days, you can start certifying again. Not until then. Once that happens, you can go back and enter the missed certification for this week. We know this is stressful. We appreciate your patience during this crisis.
The state says the Jobs4TN.gov website will be offline 1 a.m.–5 a.m. CT, Monday-Saturday to provide more capacity to process the daily payment register.
Tennessee Unemployment Claims Statewide Data
| Week Number | Week Ending Date | Number of New Claims Filed |
| 10 | March 14, 2020 | 2,702 |
| 11 | March 21, 2020 | 39,096 |
| 12 | March 28, 2020 | 94,492 |
| 13 | April 4, 2020 | 116,141 |
| 14 | April 11, 2020 | 74,772 |
Tennessee Regional Unemployment Claims Data
| Local Workforce Development Area | Number of New Claims |
| Greater Memphis | 12,216 |
| Northwest Tennessee | 2,233 |
| Southwest Tennessee | 2,692 |
| Northern Middle Tennessee | 34,643 |
| Southern Middle Tennessee | 10,488 |
| Upper Cumberland | 4,052 |
| Southeast Tennessee | 10,442 |
| East Tennessee | 16,669 |
| Northeast Tennessee | 4,626 |
| West TN Mobile American Job Center | 38 |
| Middle TN Mobile American Job Center | 374 |
| East TN Mobile America Job Center | 41 |
