1.3 Millions more Americans applied for unemployment in the United States last week as the economy continues to falter from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The number of new claims has decreased in the last 16 weeks, decreasing 10,000 last week compared to the previous week, although the number has exceeded one million in the past month.
Those who have just started receiving unemployment can only get a few weeks of the additional $ 600 that the federal government gives to those who claim unemployment insurance. The extra money, given in addition to what states give through their own programs, will expire at the end of the month. Without the extra cash, the average unemployment check is about $ 350 per week.
Lawmakers will return to Congress to negotiate a possible extension on July 20, but will have less than two weeks to reach an agreement before the additional cash stops. Meanwhile, the Trump administration unveiled its solution to alleviate the millions who are unemployed: a campaign telling them to find a new job.
Closing orders in March caused a big spike in new jobless claims, peaking at more than 6 million claims in a week in late March. As states began triggering reopening measures in May, the economy saw much-needed, albeit small, relief. The country had 4 million people who returned to work in June.
But those reopening measures may have come at a high price. Some of the states that were among the first to reopen have seen dramatic increases in new cases in recent weeks. A handful, including California, Texas, and Arizona, implemented some form of reopening reversal, targeting indoor locations like restaurants, bars, and gyms, which could leave many unemployed once again.
And millions more Americans remain unemployed after months of being out of work. As of mid-June, more than 17 million Americans were still unemployed, and thousands more left the workforce entirely.
That figure does not include workers who traditionally did not qualify for unemployment but were eligible to receive benefits through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program that was created as part of the Care Act. As of last week, more than 14 million people in 47 states were claiming unemployment insurance as part of the program, according to this week’s figures.
One such person is Cindy Lang, who has run her own home painting business near Cleveland, Ohio, for 18 years and has clients in seven states. She is getting around 25-30% of her regular income because fewer people seek her services and she needs to protect herself from clients who don’t want to follow social distancing guidelines or wear masks while at home working.
Lang, 57, is the primary caregiver for her elderly disabled parents, who suffer from respiratory illness. She said the inability to work has normally been “a long and tumultuous nightmare.”
It took her three months to receive her first unemployment check, and during that period she relied on food stamps and programs that deferred her mortgage payments and utility bills. Those deferment programs are nearing completion, as is the government’s $ 600 increase to weekly unemployment benefits.
Without the additional $ 600, Lang will have to survive on $ 180 a week in state unemployment insurance. “I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to file bankruptcy or lose my home,” Lang said.
He urged politicians who have yet to find a replacement for the $ 600 program, and especially those who want to end it, to spend a couple of hours with her and other unemployed people to understand how much stress they are under. Lang said, “I don’t wish this on my worst enemy.”
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