RALEIGH – Governor Roy Cooper issued an emergency Executive Order on Wednesday authorizing the North Carolina Department of Commerce, Division of Employment Security, to increase the amount of weekly unemployment payments available to North Carolinians in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
“As I’ve traveled for days around western North Carolina I’ve heard concern from many small business owners about their employees who are unemployed because their businesses are temporarily closed,” said Governor Cooper. “This Executive Order will increase unemployment benefits and help ease the financial burden for impacted North Carolinians as they work to recover from the storm.”
As a result of this Order, weekly unemployment benefits will increase from a maximum of $350 a week to a maximum of $600 a week. Prior to the executive order, many low-income and part-time workers would have received less than the $350 weekly maximum. To ensure that these workers receive necessary benefits in the wake of Helene, the order will also increase benefits by $250 a week (up to the $600 cap) for all eligible workers. This order is tied to the State of Emergency for Hurricane Helene, and will remain in effect until the end of the Emergency or until it is rescinded.
State unemployment benefits will still be capped at 12 weeks, but workers who lived or worked in the impacted North Carolina counties and are out of work due to the disaster will qualify for up to 26 weeks of federal benefits, to be paid through March 29, 2025 under the federal Disaster Unemployment Assistance program. To provide relief to employers impacted by Helene, and due to the extraordinary size of the trust fund balance, employers would not see any increase in unemployment taxes due to the increased benefit.
While federal law requires the elevated state payment to apply statewide, the increased benefits would largely go to workers from counties impacted by Helene, with unemployment data through October 13th showing that workers from those counties make up 79% of new claims — 19,735 — since the disaster. This percentage is likely to increase as more counties are added to the disaster declaration.
Only eight states have a lower weekly maximum unemployment benefit than North Carolina. The $350 cap was set in 2013 and has not been changed since, even as rising wages in the state continue to grow North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund from which benefits are paid. Meanwhile, the balance in North Carolina’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund now stands at over $4.8 billion, the second-largest such fund in the United States.
The Division of Employment Security, which administers both the traditional state unemployment benefits and federal disaster unemployment assistance benefits, estimates that, for every 10,000 North Carolinians who receive elevated state benefits, the additional cost to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund would be $2.5 million per week. If 50,000 North Carolinians from impacted counties received the full additional state benefit for all 12 weeks, the additional cost to the Trust Fund is estimated to be $150 million. Those same 50,000 workers would then be eligible for an additional 14 weeks of federal benefits, totaling an additional $175 million paid by the federal government.
Many currently unemployed workers will likely return to work before receiving the full benefit they are entitled to claim, so the actual fiscal impact of the increased benefits is expected to be lower.
The Division of Employment Security estimates that it may take between two and three weeks for impacted individuals to see the impact in their weekly benefit checks. The benefits for eligible claimants will be retroactive to September 29, 2024 and adjustment payments will be issued for benefit weeks going back to that date.
The North Carolina Council of State unanimously concurred with this executive order, consistent with the North Carolina Emergency Management Act.
