A new analysis released Tuesday shows that more U.S. workers filed unemployment claims last week than during any other week in the nation’s history.
An estimated 3.4 million Americans filed such claims for the week ending March 21, according to the findings from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
“This will dwarf every other week in history,” wrote EPI’s Aaron Sojourner and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, adding, “The true impacts are undoubtedly of larger scale than described here.”
Mamdani prepares to fulfill promise to axe NYPD unit responsible for controlling protest violence
Trump Drops Bombshell on Blue-State Governors, and They Should Be Very Nervous
TOXIC RAGE: DC Shooter Had ‘Obsession’ Over Mold in His $1.1M Apartment
Democrats turn on Schumer after historic election wins as potential challenger emerges
Matt Lambert, DC doctor, identified as gunman in deadly attack after HOA feud
Family of slain 8-year-old challenges Newsom’s decision to commute California death row sentences
Fact Check: Yes, Muslim-Majority US City Has OK’d Animal Sacrifices, and It’s Even Worse Than Story Currently Going Viral
Oklahoma man, 73, executed for plotting murder of lover’s husband, offers no last words
House Dem misses Hegseth impeachment vote because of major medical procedure one week after Election Day
Breaking: Former Nvidia CEO Will Testify Before Congress About Chinese Spy Scandal
Trump asks Vance to focus on ‘corruption and crime’ in Dem-run cities, states
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
The startling calculation—based on claims in 35 states and Washington, D.C. and extrapolated to the other 15 states—comes as the nation continues to experience a rise in cases of the novel coronavirus—with over 46,000 confirmed as of Tuesday—and as ordinary Americans feel the economic and societal impacts of the crisis, with schools, stores, and work places temporarily shuttered, varying degrees of lockdowns in place, and households and frontline workers still wondering if lawmakers will put their urgent needs above those of corporate America.
A graph accompanying the new EPI analysis, which is based on data from news reports from March 15 to March 21, illustrates the enormous jump in unemployment claims—even if the actual figure ends up being on the analysts’ low-end projection of 3 million claims. At no other point in the timeline shown does the figure even scrape 1 million.
Reaction to the findings was stark:
Mamdani prepares to fulfill promise to axe NYPD unit responsible for controlling protest violence
Trump Drops Bombshell on Blue-State Governors, and They Should Be Very Nervous
TOXIC RAGE: DC Shooter Had ‘Obsession’ Over Mold in His $1.1M Apartment
Democrats turn on Schumer after historic election wins as potential challenger emerges
Matt Lambert, DC doctor, identified as gunman in deadly attack after HOA feud
Family of slain 8-year-old challenges Newsom’s decision to commute California death row sentences
Fact Check: Yes, Muslim-Majority US City Has OK’d Animal Sacrifices, and It’s Even Worse Than Story Currently Going Viral
Oklahoma man, 73, executed for plotting murder of lover’s husband, offers no last words
House Dem misses Hegseth impeachment vote because of major medical procedure one week after Election Day
Breaking: Former Nvidia CEO Will Testify Before Congress About Chinese Spy Scandal
Trump asks Vance to focus on ‘corruption and crime’ in Dem-run cities, states
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
This chart, holy shit https://t.co/luqjZ4ngsh pic.twitter.com/NeCbcOY1aw
— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) March 24, 2020
Sojourner and Goldsmith-Pinkham, both research associates at EPI, put the projection into the context of the nation’s unemployment rate:
For scale, consider that 3.4 million Americans moving from employment to unemployment would raise the number of the unemployed from 5.7 million to 9.1 million. This alone would raise the unemployment rate by more than half, by 2 percentage points from 3.5% to 5.5%, moving back to 2015 levels in just one week. This spike represents 2.2% of all jobs in the economy. The largest monthly rise in the unemployment rate in American history was plus 1.3 percentage points in October 1949.
Mamdani prepares to fulfill promise to axe NYPD unit responsible for controlling protest violence
Trump Drops Bombshell on Blue-State Governors, and They Should Be Very Nervous
TOXIC RAGE: DC Shooter Had ‘Obsession’ Over Mold in His $1.1M Apartment
Democrats turn on Schumer after historic election wins as potential challenger emerges
Matt Lambert, DC doctor, identified as gunman in deadly attack after HOA feud
Family of slain 8-year-old challenges Newsom’s decision to commute California death row sentences
Fact Check: Yes, Muslim-Majority US City Has OK’d Animal Sacrifices, and It’s Even Worse Than Story Currently Going Viral
Oklahoma man, 73, executed for plotting murder of lover’s husband, offers no last words
House Dem misses Hegseth impeachment vote because of major medical procedure one week after Election Day
Breaking: Former Nvidia CEO Will Testify Before Congress About Chinese Spy Scandal
Trump asks Vance to focus on ‘corruption and crime’ in Dem-run cities, states
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
AG Todd Blanche Now Among Trump Officials Living on Military Base for Safety: Report
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
It Wouldn’t Be a ‘Climate Change’ Conference Without Tons of Private Jets There, and the UN’s COP31 Certainly Delivered
Grim as the scenario painted by the analsis is, reality may be even worse. The researchers wrote that the actual tally of claims “could be substantially higher.” Not all unemployed workers are able to file unemployment insurance claims either, and for those that do, they’ll get about half—or less—of their regular income. The end of the coronavirus crisis is also not in the immediate future.
All that points to the need for the federal government to provide states with more aid.
“American working families are paying a large price through no fault of their own,” wrote Sojourner and Goldsmith-Pinkham. “But there is no shortcutting public health to get the American economy back to work. A healthy economy requires public health.”
Story cited here.
