San José, CA – On Saturday, August 8, President Trump signed four executive orders that he declared would “take care of, pretty much, the entire situation.” But jobless workers will get little or no help from the triple whammy of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis and the recent loss of the additional $600 a week in unemployment benefits, known as the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, of FPUC.
San José, CA – In March and April of this year, more than 20 million jobs were lost because of the economic crisis, COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders to fight the virus. Millions more who were working gig jobs or had their own businesses lost their livelihood. At the time when the government count was done in mid-July, more than 30 million people – almost 20% of the workforce – were collecting some form of unemployment insurance benefits.
San José, CA – Talks between Democrats and Republicans about extending economic aid remained deadlocked as of Thursday morning, August 6. In May, Democrats passed their HEROES act to extend the $600 additional unemployment benefit, known as FPUC, or Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, as well as other economic aid for renters, state and local government, and others. But Republican senators and the Trump administration did nothing, hoping that the COVID-19 pandemic would go away, and the economy would recover in short order. The Republicans have also been hampered by divisions in the Senate, where a large minority don’t want to extend any more aid. The Trump administration had its own proposal for a payroll tax cut that the Republican-majority Senate rejected.
San José, CA – 25 million Americans or more are losing their additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance benefits even as the number of people applying for unemployment benefits continues to rise. Up to one-third of all renters have already lost eviction protection from the federal government, and the Republican proposal does not include extending it. Millions of other households are under threat of losing their electrical power for not paying their bills.
San José, CA – After months of delay and weeks of infighting, on Monday, July 27 the Trump administration and the Republican Senate put forward their proposal for more economic relief from the pandemic and recession. With the $600 a week in additional benefits expiring, the Republicans want to cut this by $400 a week, down to $200. With the national unemployment benefit averaging about $350 a week, this would mean a more than 40% cut in their benefits.
San José, CA – The $600 a week in additional unemployment insurance benefits is set to expire at the end of July. This aid is called the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation or FPUC. More than 25 million people who are receiving regular state unemployment benefits, or the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA for the self-employed, will lose their FPUC benefit.
San José, CA – In less than two weeks the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation or FPUC, which provides an extra $600 a week to those who are unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, will end. The FPUC was part of CARES act passed back in March as disaster relief as the pandemic began to ravage the U.S. economy.
COVID-19 infections and end to enhanced benefits to make a bad situation worse
San José, CA – On Thursday, July 9, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that the broadest measure of people on unemployment continued to climb. In the week ending June 20, the total number was 32.9 million, up by 1.4 million from a week earlier. This number includes those who are receiving the regular state unemployment insurance benefits, the growing number getting the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA, the Federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC, and other smaller programs.
Trump administration still opposed to extending aid for unemployed
San José, CA – The latest report by the Labor Department on Thursday, July 2 indicated new claims for aid for unemployed showed no improvement for the third week in a row. While new claims for the regular state unemployment insurance benefits did fall by 50,000 from last week’s report, to 1.43 million, new claims for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA actually rose by 110,000 from last week’s report, to 840,000. Taken together, new claims for the two main programs to aid the unemployed totaled 2.27 million for the week ending June 27, slighting more than the previous week and the same as two weeks ago.
Countdown to end of extra unemployment insurance continues
San José, CA – For the second week in a row, new applications for state unemployment insurance or UI did not drop by much, despite economists’ expectations. New claims for the week ending June 20 were 1.48 million, down only 28,000 from last week’s initial estimate. New applications for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, fell by 42,000 to 728,000 last week. Together the PUA and state unemployment insurance applications topped 2.2 million, only slightly lower than the 2.27 million total for the week before.
San José, CA – In six weeks, tens of millions of unemployed people face the end of the additional $600 a week in unemployment insurance benefits. This additional benefit that helps low income workers the most is set to expire due to its being opposed by the Republican-controlled Senate. These same workers were hardest hit by the pandemic recession, and many face the prospect of their jobs not coming back. This is just another example of how the economic relief has helped large corporations, which can aided by the Federal Reserve, while low-income workers are subject to punishment by republicans who see the aid as discouraging people from returning to work.
San José, CA – On Thursday, June 11, reality finally caught up with Wall Street. For weeks there was a huge gap between the economy, where millions upon millions of people had lost their jobs and livelihood, and the soaring stock market which had turned positive for the year. But today reality seems to have sunk in, sending the headline Dow Jones Industrial Average down more than 1800 points, or almost 7%. The broad S&P 500 index fell almost 6%, and the technology-heavy NASDAQ fell more than 5%. Stock market from Asia to Europe also fell.
San José, CA – Corporate-owned media is blaring that the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in May to 13.3%, from 14.7% in April. This was far better than even the most optimistic economist expected and even led to at least one to declare that “the recession is over.” Well, when something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t true.
Nearly three times as high as the pre-pandemic record
San José, CA – On Thursday, June 4 the federal Department of Labor reported that 1.9 million new claims for state unemployment insurance or UI benefits were filed in the week ending May 30. This was down by 250,000 claims from the previous week, continuing the slow decline in new applications. However, this was still more than two and a half times higher than the previous pre-pandemic record of almost 700,000 claims made during the deep 1981-82 recession.
San José, CA – San Jose police backed up by county sheriffs attacked protesters as they tried to rally at City Hall on Friday, May 29. 1000 people, mainly young, had gathered to protest the killing of George Floyd and other African Americans by police. They took to the streets and blocked a freeway with signs reading “Black lives matter” and speakers condemning President Trump. But when the protest tried to march to the City Hall plaza, which is a traditional site for political rallies, they were blocked by a line of police who unleashed tear gas. When protesters resisted, the police used flashbang grenades, rubber bullets and batons to try to break up the demonstration.
Initial wave of layoffs ebbs even as new job cuts grow
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 28, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were 2.1 million new claims for state unemployment insurance in the previous week ending May 23. This was down from 2.4 million new claims the week before, showing that the wave of layoffs from the pandemic and efforts to control it is going down. At the same time this is still more than ten times the pre-recession level and brings the total number of new applications to 40 million in the last ten weeks.
Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i see unemployment rates above 20% in April
San José, CA – On Friday, May 22, the monthly report on state-level labor markets saw the – unemployment rate for three states – Nevada, Michigan and Hawai’i – all soar to more than 20%, levels unseen since the worst of the Great Depression of the 1930s. Actual job losses, reported by business, came to almost 20% between March and April in Vermont and New York, along with Hawai’i.
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 21, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that 2.4 million more people have applied for state unemployment insurance, or UI, in the week ending May 16. In addition, about 1.2 million people applied for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, set up by the recent CARES act for the self-employed. This increase of 3.6 million applications for unemployment benefits means that a total of more than 47 million people have lost their livelihood in the last eight weeks.
Part of effort to place the burden of the economic crisis on workers
San José, CA – On May 14, Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom laid out his plan to deal with a projected $54 billion budget deficit for the state of California. Included in the plan was to save almost $3 billion by cutting state workers’ pay by 10%.
Over the last 8 weeks more than 40 million have lost their livelihood
San José, CA – On Thursday, May 14, the Labor Department reported more bad news, saying that almost 3 million people applied for unemployment insurance in the previous week ending May 9. This means that over the last eight weeks more than 36 million people applied after losing jobs and income. Another 3.5 million are collecting the federal government’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, which goes to the self-employed. This brings the total number of recently unemployed people to about 40 million.