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.”
Trans NYT Games executive killed after accusing in-laws of years of abuse amid bitter custody battle
Hollywood actress upset her son isn’t gay fumes in bizarre spectacle at Human Rights Campaign gala
Republicans fear they ‘haven’t done a damn thing’ to lower prices ahead of midterm reckoning
FBI strikes back at hacking group with overseas arrest of alleged leader
Trump Administration Extradites Alleged Major Narco-Terrorist ‘The Spider’ to US to Face Charges
Jack Smith deputy advocated ‘repealing’ congressional protections prior to Jan. 6
AOC’s Trip Out of NYC Seen as a Hint at Her Aspirations for 2028
Rubio confirms ‘foreign actor’ involved in UK terror plot
Real winner of Xi summit revealed as Trump looks to usher in new era with China
Connecticut Homeowner Finds Himself in Cuffs After Opening Fire on Bear to Protect His Animals
Dick’s Sporting Goods Blocks Customers from Ordering Custom, Christian-Themed Water Bottles – Allows Islam
Jack Smith faces Senate grilling as Republicans press for criminal charges against him
Gaza refugee raised $13,000 on GoFundMe for alleged terrorist husband to enter US
State Department considers sharing passport records for voter citizenship checks
Lindsay Clancy’s push to probe holdout juror hits snag before pivotal retrial hearing
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:
Trans NYT Games executive killed after accusing in-laws of years of abuse amid bitter custody battle
Hollywood actress upset her son isn’t gay fumes in bizarre spectacle at Human Rights Campaign gala
Republicans fear they ‘haven’t done a damn thing’ to lower prices ahead of midterm reckoning
FBI strikes back at hacking group with overseas arrest of alleged leader
Trump Administration Extradites Alleged Major Narco-Terrorist ‘The Spider’ to US to Face Charges
Jack Smith deputy advocated ‘repealing’ congressional protections prior to Jan. 6
AOC’s Trip Out of NYC Seen as a Hint at Her Aspirations for 2028
Rubio confirms ‘foreign actor’ involved in UK terror plot
Real winner of Xi summit revealed as Trump looks to usher in new era with China
Connecticut Homeowner Finds Himself in Cuffs After Opening Fire on Bear to Protect His Animals
Dick’s Sporting Goods Blocks Customers from Ordering Custom, Christian-Themed Water Bottles – Allows Islam
Jack Smith faces Senate grilling as Republicans press for criminal charges against him
Gaza refugee raised $13,000 on GoFundMe for alleged terrorist husband to enter US
State Department considers sharing passport records for voter citizenship checks
Lindsay Clancy’s push to probe holdout juror hits snag before pivotal retrial hearing
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.
Trans NYT Games executive killed after accusing in-laws of years of abuse amid bitter custody battle
Hollywood actress upset her son isn’t gay fumes in bizarre spectacle at Human Rights Campaign gala
Republicans fear they ‘haven’t done a damn thing’ to lower prices ahead of midterm reckoning
FBI strikes back at hacking group with overseas arrest of alleged leader
Trump Administration Extradites Alleged Major Narco-Terrorist ‘The Spider’ to US to Face Charges
Jack Smith deputy advocated ‘repealing’ congressional protections prior to Jan. 6
AOC’s Trip Out of NYC Seen as a Hint at Her Aspirations for 2028
Rubio confirms ‘foreign actor’ involved in UK terror plot
Real winner of Xi summit revealed as Trump looks to usher in new era with China
Connecticut Homeowner Finds Himself in Cuffs After Opening Fire on Bear to Protect His Animals
Dick’s Sporting Goods Blocks Customers from Ordering Custom, Christian-Themed Water Bottles – Allows Islam
Jack Smith faces Senate grilling as Republicans press for criminal charges against him
Gaza refugee raised $13,000 on GoFundMe for alleged terrorist husband to enter US
State Department considers sharing passport records for voter citizenship checks
Lindsay Clancy’s push to probe holdout juror hits snag before pivotal retrial hearing
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.
