South By North Strategies, Ltd.

The Triangle Business Journal reports that the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina has paid $239 million in insurance benefits so far this year to unemployed individuals residing in Durham, Orange, and Wake counties. Although the news report is unclear, this amount likely only reflects regular benefit payments and excludes at least some federally-funded benefits.

If, as the research firm Moody’s Economy.com estimates, every $1 in unemployment insurance benefits generates $1.64 in economic activity, then that $239 million in insurance payments has generated some $392 million in economic activity across the Triangle.