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.”
Trump returns to National Prayer Breakfast as faith takes center stage in second term
Republican who said Sen Cassidy ‘sucks,’ gets Trump endorsement after ditching Senate bid for House run
Teachers union leaders spent thousands at swanky resorts
Bodycam shows NYPD officer shooting man with knife as Mamdani calls for no criminal charges
Georgia GOP Rep Barry Loudermilk to retire, adding to wave of House exits
More than 200 people evaluated in Tennessee after carbon monoxide leak infiltrates university facility
FBI arrests 55 in massive drug ring with alleged China supplier flooding US streets with fentanyl
Hochul primary challenger picks democratic socialist, once arrested for harassment, as running mate
DC Democrats Turn Their Backs on the Clintons: ‘They Bring Nothing But Baggage’
Massive student immigration protest turns violent in downtown LA; dispersal order issued: police
Government lawyer who told judge ‘this job sucks’ sent back to DHS
Democrats say Clintons’ agreement to testify undercuts subpoena push, won’t bring new Epstein answers
Baltimore’s progressive mayor calls reporter ‘racist’ in heated exchange over luxury taxpayer vehicle
Joseph Gordon-Levitt slams Big Tech for sextortion, threats to children while calling for key internet reform
New York subway hearing erupts as MTA boss snaps ‘shut up’ amid grilling over guards letting fare jumpers walk
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:
Trump returns to National Prayer Breakfast as faith takes center stage in second term
Republican who said Sen Cassidy ‘sucks,’ gets Trump endorsement after ditching Senate bid for House run
Teachers union leaders spent thousands at swanky resorts
Bodycam shows NYPD officer shooting man with knife as Mamdani calls for no criminal charges
Georgia GOP Rep Barry Loudermilk to retire, adding to wave of House exits
More than 200 people evaluated in Tennessee after carbon monoxide leak infiltrates university facility
FBI arrests 55 in massive drug ring with alleged China supplier flooding US streets with fentanyl
Hochul primary challenger picks democratic socialist, once arrested for harassment, as running mate
DC Democrats Turn Their Backs on the Clintons: ‘They Bring Nothing But Baggage’
Massive student immigration protest turns violent in downtown LA; dispersal order issued: police
Government lawyer who told judge ‘this job sucks’ sent back to DHS
Democrats say Clintons’ agreement to testify undercuts subpoena push, won’t bring new Epstein answers
Baltimore’s progressive mayor calls reporter ‘racist’ in heated exchange over luxury taxpayer vehicle
Joseph Gordon-Levitt slams Big Tech for sextortion, threats to children while calling for key internet reform
New York subway hearing erupts as MTA boss snaps ‘shut up’ amid grilling over guards letting fare jumpers walk
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.
Trump returns to National Prayer Breakfast as faith takes center stage in second term
Republican who said Sen Cassidy ‘sucks,’ gets Trump endorsement after ditching Senate bid for House run
Teachers union leaders spent thousands at swanky resorts
Bodycam shows NYPD officer shooting man with knife as Mamdani calls for no criminal charges
Georgia GOP Rep Barry Loudermilk to retire, adding to wave of House exits
More than 200 people evaluated in Tennessee after carbon monoxide leak infiltrates university facility
FBI arrests 55 in massive drug ring with alleged China supplier flooding US streets with fentanyl
Hochul primary challenger picks democratic socialist, once arrested for harassment, as running mate
DC Democrats Turn Their Backs on the Clintons: ‘They Bring Nothing But Baggage’
Massive student immigration protest turns violent in downtown LA; dispersal order issued: police
Government lawyer who told judge ‘this job sucks’ sent back to DHS
Democrats say Clintons’ agreement to testify undercuts subpoena push, won’t bring new Epstein answers
Baltimore’s progressive mayor calls reporter ‘racist’ in heated exchange over luxury taxpayer vehicle
Joseph Gordon-Levitt slams Big Tech for sextortion, threats to children while calling for key internet reform
New York subway hearing erupts as MTA boss snaps ‘shut up’ amid grilling over guards letting fare jumpers walk
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.
