New and ongoing unemployment claims in Northeast Tennessee dropped last week to their lowest levels since the COVID-19 pandemic began. That short-term encouraging news follows a report showing the region had almost 12,000 more people working in November than it had in October.Ongoing jobless claims in the eight-county region had been stuck in a tight range between 2,566 and 2,586 for the past four weeks, but fell to 2,178. For the first time, the number of people with ongoing unemployment claims is less than double the March 21 figure of 1,165 – the last week before claims began to spike.