This archive report was first published on 7 May 2020.
3.2 Million New Unemployment Claims as Layoffs Persist ¶
As states begin to reopen their economies, the US is still grappling with the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The latest jobless claims data, released by the government on Thursday, shows that an additional 3.2 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week.
This brings the total number of jobless claims to over 33 million in just seven weeks, with officials in some states estimating that more than a quarter of the workforce is currently unemployed.
Economists expect the monthly jobs report from the Labor Department, due out on Friday, to show that the unemployment rate in April was 15 percent or higher, a level not seen since the Great Depression.
Workers in the restaurant, travel, hospitality, and retail industries were among the first to lose their jobs when the outbreak forced business shutdowns. However, recent weeks have seen a surge in layoffs affecting engineers at Uber, advertising account executives at Omnicom, designers at Airbnb, and other office employees.
“We’re still seeing a massive wave of layoffs taking over the U.S. economy,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics. He described the latest job losses as a “secondary wave of the coronavirus recession.”
As restrictions are lifted, employees who refuse calls to return to work without “good cause” will lose access to unemployment benefits, state officials have said. Many laid-off workers who are called back face the prospect of making less than they do on unemployment, including a temporary $600 weekly supplement enacted in federal emergency legislation.
Some workers, like Michele Capamaggio, 38, have returned to their jobs to avoid being put on a flexible schedule or fired, losing access to their benefits. “Basically, I had to go back,” Ms. Capamaggio said. “Just hurts that I could be making $900 a week at home but will only make $500 a week busting my butt at work and putting myself at risk.”
Despite the challenges, there are workers eager to return to their jobs. Nicky Koutsoumbas, 19, earned more from government aid in April than she did in an average month working at a camera shop in Las Vegas, receiving $700 a week in unemployment benefits and $1,200 in stimulus money from the I.R.S.
However, even as people like Ms. Koutsoumbas venture back into the workforce, jobless claims keep pouring in. Unemployment offices have scrambled to hire more workers, upgrade computers, and add call centers, but are still struggling to process the crush.
Applicants complain they have trouble just getting into the system, and many who filed successfully for benefits say there are gaps in their payments, even if they certify their jobless status each week. Checks have also been slow in coming, with Alexander Talley, 28, receiving nothing until April 28, when $1,300 in retroactive payments from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity appeared in his bank account.
