Continuing claims, which measures the number of people receiving regular state unemployment insurance benefits, fell by much larger number, dropping 916,000 to 12.6 million for the week ending September 5. But much of this drop was because the surge in unemployment insurance claims began in March, when travel, hospitality, and restaurants began to cut back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The broadest measure of unemployment insurance rose by 98,000 for the week ending August 29, to a total of 29.8 million. This number includes the regular state unemployment benefits, the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA for gig workers and the self-employed, the federal Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation or PEUC and the state Extended Benefits program, both which aid those who have run through the six months for regular state unemployment.

Other signs that the economy continues to slow emerged this week. On Wednesday, the government report on retail sales for August saw a gain of only six-tenths of one percent. This was just more than half of what most economists expected, and a drop from August’s increase. But this was not unexpected, given the expiration of the $600 a week in additional unemployment insurance benefits.

Trump’s executive order granting an additional $300 week has also ended after only five weeks. While many states are still making retroactive payments, they will run out soon, leaving almost 30 million people high and dry.

Another sign of weakness was that new construction on homes and apartments fell 5.1% in August, led by a big decline in apartment construction projects. This is no surprise as more and more people are being evicted, despite a moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control. The big problem with the CDC order is that the federal government is not providing any money for rent relief. A better approach has been proposed by Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, who call for rent forgiveness for tenants hit by the recession, and government aid to landlords who commit to more protection for their tenants.

#SanJoséCA #EconomicCrisis #unemploymentInsurance

The numbers of continuing claims, which show how many people are actually collecting benefits, also rose. The number of people getting regular state unemployment insurance rose to 13.2 million for the week ending August 29, up 50,000 from the previous week. The federal PUA benefits are being paid to 14.6 million for the week ending August 22, up over a million from the week before, and marking the first time that PUA claims exceeded the regular state UI.

With more and more workers out of work for longer periods of time, the Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation or FEUC, for those who regular UI has run out, also rose by 30,000 to more than 1.4 million. Another program for these long-term workers, the Extended Benefits, saw their numbers jump 43% to more than 240,000.

The broadest measure, which includes the regular state unemployment insurance, the federal PUA, the federal PEUC, the state EB, as well as smaller programs, grew by 375,000 to 29.6 million. This represents more than 18% of the total labor force, which are those who are working or unemployed.

While the economy was slammed by the pandemic in March and April at the beginning of the recession, the worsening numbers for unemployment insurance are coming at a time when new infections and deaths for COVID-19 have been trending down recently. Along with the continued rise in numbers of long-term unemployed, the recession is beginning to worsen even without a surge in the pandemic.

The financial situation of local and state governments continues to get worse as sales and income tax revenues fall with recession. State and local governments face a total shortfall of about $500 billion through next summer. Without more aid from the federal government, education and health care services will be slashed, costing hundreds of thousands in lost jobs.

Despite the growing numbers of people who are depending on government aid and a fiscal crunch among state and local governments, the likelihood of the federal government coming up with more economic relief also dimmed in Washington, D.C.

While the Democrats in the House of Representative passed a $3.5 trillion Heroes Act back in May, the Republicans did not respond until late July. By this time parts of the March Cares Act, including the $600 a week additional unemployment benefits and the eviction and foreclosure restrictions, were expiring. When the Republican Senate put forward a much more limited $1 trillion proposal, the Democrats offered to split the difference with a $2.2 trillion compromise. But in response, the Republican Senate has passed a bill that only offers $300 billion in new money – showing that they are not serious about negotiating. The Republican Senate bill is even worse than President Trump’s Executive Order giving $300 a week in additional aid, only offering $200 a week. In this and in other ways, the Republican Senate has shown themselves with their bill to be worse than Trump on economic aid to the American people.

#SanJoséCA #unemploymentInsurance #DepartmentOfLabor #HEROESAct

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.

The total number of people receiving state unemployment benefits – which is delayed by a week – rose by 650,000 to 21.5 million for the week ending May 23. The total number of the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance or PUA and Pandemic Employment Assistance or PEA rose by 3 million to a total of almost 11 million in the week ending May 16. Putting together the state UI totals along with the federal PUA and PEA means that almost 30 million individuals, or 20% of the total labor force, were collecting aid for lost jobs or income as of the middle of May.

Years of underfunding and neglect at best, and sabotage at worst, has hamstrung the ability of state and federal government to get aid to those who need it. Thousands who lost their livelihoods have not been able to file for state unemployment benefits, and at least four states – Arkansas, Kansas, New Hampshire and West Virginia – all with Republican governors – have not even started to pay federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

Things are so bad that there is a growing number of errors in the reports. For example, there are at least a half a million PUA and PEA claims being paid through states that are not showing up in the federal reports, meaning that the actual total benefits being paid in mid-May was more than 30 million.

Worst of all, thousands of people are being thrown off of unemployment for refusing or even hesitating to return to work in unsafe jobs. States such as Oklahoma and Ohio are encouraging employers to report workers unwilling or unable to return to work and cut them off of unemployment benefits. This is one of the reasons that almost all states are rushing to ‘reopen’ despite a majority of Americans thinking that the pace is too fast. Businesses and their bought and paid for politicians want to use the threat of hunger and homelessness to force people back to work to try to restore profits, the pandemic be damned.

#SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #unemploymentInsurance #DepartmentOfLabor #PandemicUnemploymentAssistance

San José, CA – New claims for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits doubled from record numbers just a week earlier. On Thursday, April 2, the Department of Labor reported that more than 6.6 million people applied for state unemployment insurance benefits for the week ending March 28. This means that almost 10 MILLION people lost their jobs and applied for UI benefits in just the last two weeks of March. This economic crisis has caused more job losses in two weeks than the entire 2007 to 2009 recession, where 8 million jobs were lost.

Like the week before, Wall Street rallied, with the broad S&P 500 Index up 2.28% and the headline Dow Jones Industrial Average gaining 450 points. This is just another example of how the interests of the wealthiest 1% of Wall Street, who own half of all stocks, and the working people of America have opposing interests.

A week ago, Steve Mnuchin, Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury, dismissed the record unemployment insurance benefit applications as “not relevant,” because of the bipartisan pandemic disaster bill that had just been signed into law. The $1200 payments to individuals are supposed to start April 9 for those who have direct deposit for their tax returns. But it will take up to 20 weeks, or almost five months, for checks to be mailed to people who the IRS doesn’t have bank records for.

The layoffs are spreading. What began with smaller businesses that had to shut down is spreading to more and more medium and large businesses. A number of major retailers such as Macy’s, Gap and Kohls, who had already shut their stores, announced that they were furloughing most of their workers. Job losses in manufacturing and construction are picking up as sales dry up and public health restrictions expand. Even white collar and technology jobs that can be done at home are being lost as companies cut workers in the face of falling sales. Many of these layoffs won’t show up until next week’s report.

With surveys showing that 40% of households could not make the rent or mortgage if they lost their jobs, millions will not be able to pay this month, and even more next month. While a number of state and local governments have banned evictions temporarily, tenants will still owe their back rent. What began as a public health crisis with the lack of preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic is turning into an economic crisis which the United States, with its weak safety net, is also not prepared for.

#SanJoséCA #PoorPeoplesMovements #US #Healthcare #PeoplesStruggles #unemploymentInsurance #stockMarket #DonaldTrump #COVID19

San José, CA – On Thursday, March 26, the Labor Department reported the new claims for Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits rocketed to 3.3 million for the week ending March 21. This was almost five times the previous record of almost 700,000 new claims in October of 1982, when the recession drove the unemployment rate to 10.8%. The number of new claims for UI was 15 times higher than the report just two weeks earlier.

This number certainly understated the number of lost jobs. Many states don’t allow part-time and gig workers, independent contractors, and the self-employed to file for unemployment benefits. Many workers were not able to file as state UI websites crashed and phone lines jammed. Similar numbers or even worse are expected for next week’s report as layoffs continued to mount this week and the backlog of jobless workers who were not able to file grows.

The loss of more than 3 million jobs could increase the of