For the most part, the amount of unemployment insurance benefits (all programs paid to eligible Beaufort County residents has decreased in the past 14 months.

Those benefits paid in January 2014 totaled $241,258, according to the N.C. Department of Commerce’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division. In January of this year, those benefits paid totaled $131,132. By February of this year, the benefits paid had dropped to $127,205.

A Commerce Department official said the overall decline in unemployment insurance paid out in the past 14 months in Beaufort County probably reflects the overall drop in the county’s unemployment rate and the fewer number of people receiving unemployment insurance benefits during those 14 months.

“A decline in the amount of benefits paid could be due to several reasons; an improved economy, less people collecting and with the law change, fewer weeks and a lower maximum benefit amount,” wrote Larry Parker, public information officer with the Division of Employment Security, in an email.

In February, 81 county residents filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits, with 57 of them male residents and 24 of them female residents, according to LEAD data.

The amount of a claimant’s weekly benefit amount depends, in part, on that person’s salary history during the last two quarters of his or her base period divided by 52. A claimant must have at least $780 in one of those last two quarters to establish a weekly benefit amount, which cannot exceed $350.

In North Carolina during February, the weekly benefit amount was $222.

The amounts of benefits paid in Beaufort County during 2014 and the first two months of 2015 are as follows: January 2014, $241,258; February 2014, $188,756; March 2014, $189,613; April 2014, $159,264; May 2014, $142,383; June 2014, $161,675; July 2014, $173,081; August 2014, $162,849; September 2014, $176,940; October 2014, $112,323; November 2014, $117,359; December 2014, $147,782; January 2015, $131,132 and February 2015, $127,205.

The benefits paid include regular unemployment insurance, unemployment compensation for federal employees, unemployment compensation for ex-military personnel, emergency unemployment compensation, extended benefits and federal additional compensation, according to LEAD documents.