7 Months Later There Are Still 23 Million (!) on Unemployment in the US

Since most states only offer benefits for 26 weeks the number will start declining rapidly soon without it meaning people are actually returning to jobs

Across the US, initial claims for UI under state programs fell by 73k to 757k (not seasonally adjusted) in the week ended October 17, not quite undoing the jump last week of 98k, and remaining higher than week before last week. The number of initial claims has been in the same range for the 11th week in row:

Initial state claims and initial PUA claims. Initial PUA claims ticked up a smidgen in the week ended October 17, to 345k. When added to the initial state UI claims of 757k, the combined total amounted to 1.1 million in the week ended October 17. Meaning 1.1 million people who’d lost their work filed for UI in one week, and this number hasn’t changed much over the past eight weeks, and it’s still a huge number.

Continued claims, state and federal.

Total continued claims for unemployment insurance (UI) under all state and federal programs fell by 1.05 million, to 23.15 million people (not seasonally adjusted), the lowest since early May, according to the Department of Labor this morning. These 23.15 million continued claims of UI – marred by data chaos of backlogs, over-reporting, under-reporting, and fraud allegations surrounding the PUA claims – would constitute 14.4% of the civilian labor force of 160.8 million.

These total continued UI claims under all programs are reflected in the chart below: The huge jump in total UI claims in late August and early September, that then suddenly unwound, was caused by a huge jump in California’s continued PUA claims (part of the red columns) that California then unwound two week later by an even huger drop. It has been data chaos all along:

Blue columns: Continued Claims under state programs.

The number of people who continued claiming UI under state programs fell by 1.02 million to 8.0 million, the lowest since late March.

Red columns: Continued Claims, federal & other key programs.

The number of people who have claimed UI since at least Oct. 3, under all federal programs established by the CARES Act and some other programs ticked down by 28k to 15.2 million (not seasonally adjusted):

  • Federal PUA claims dropped by 426k to 10.2 million.
  • Federal PEUC jumped by 510k to 3.3 million, having nearly tripled in five weeks. The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, established under the CARES Act, covers workers not covered by other programs.
  • State Extended Benefits jumped by 90k to 445k, having doubled in five weeks.
  • State STC / Workshare ticked down by 1k to 195253k.

Federal PUA & PEUC continued claims combined.

These are the two programs established under the CARES Act: PUA to provide UI to gig workers for the first time in history, and PEUC to cover workers who are not eligible under other programs, or lost coverage under other programs. The combined total reported today rose to 13.5 million, the highest in three weeks. Beyond the California PUA surge-and-plunge in late August and early September, has essentially been flat for the past five weeks, as continued PUA claims (black columns) have declined, but continued PEUC claims have risen:

And Florida provides more data chaos.

Florida finally figured out how to process and report initial PUA claims on a weekly basis a few weeks ago. And those claims have been surging. Today Florida reported 49,641 initial PUA claims, the most of any state, and nearly double California’s initial PUA claims (25,168). But Florida is still not reporting “continued PUA claims,” the only state failing to do so. Their absence likely understates total US continued PUA claims and adds to the data chaos.

The picture that emerges.

The UI claims data indicates that the labor market is churning wildly through people, with over a million people on UI getting hired every week, while over a million people are still losing their work every week and filing for UI. But slightly more people on UI are finding work again than people are losing their work and filing for UI. This massive churn shows the extent of the turmoil in the economy as companies try to deal with all the shifts and changes, where some companies hire hand-over-fist while other companies are shedding workers.

Source: Wolf Street

12 Comments
  1. gwelch1945 says

    The sanctions being imposed around the world cause as much damage and needless suffering to innocent citizens in painfully slow motion as a full on military attack. The entire US administration has absolutely no respect for human life that is unfortunate enough to have natural resources or geographic position desired by the thugs. Now the time is here to watch the monster self destruct very soon.

    1. didactic1 says

      Indeed. And trillion per yr in national security spending by America better directed to reforestation, sustainable farming, and disassembly of major urban centers.

    2. didactic1 says

      A lot of human life wont make it thru coming wars, famines and COVID+ pandemics. Ecology rebalance. Not a moment too soon.

      Who needs Bangladesh? Bengalis not allowed to participate in contest.

      Next week, Who Needs Nigeria?

  2. Sink Chicken says

    How many of the 23 million are illegal immigrants?

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      What determines whether they are illegal or not?

  3. James Willy says

    Just can hope for trump to win then we can watch these seppos destroy each other and the country. These yankees deserve what ever comes to them for all the destruction they have caused the planet for the last 150 years. Hope every one of them is destroyed just like they did to every one else. Pray for trump to win. Then grab yur popcorn.

  4. chris chuba says

    Why do Cubans in Fl love Trump so much?

    I get that they hate Fidel Castro because their grandfathers fled the island and they had to leave all their belongings behind but after 50yrs, don’t they feel a little bad for their cousins. Fidel is dead, his brother is there but bragging about how you aren’t going to let cruise ships stop at the island or let people send money to grandma to buy a wheel chair isn’t being tough on communism. It is just hurting your relatives.

    Rubio is a sociopath, he doesn’t care about anything other than power but I figure that most Cuban Americans are probably nice people and don’t want to harm people just because they still live in Cuba. But Trump and Republicans gloat over these life destroying sanctions. It’s easy to act tough when you are kicking puppies.

    1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

      We can only hope that the puppies will grow up and treat those who kicked them to full-grown junkyard dog revenge.

    2. Saint Jimmy (Russian American) says

      Absolutely spot on. The great majority of Cubans who fled to the US after the Cuban revolution were very wealthy and were the main supporters of the oppressive Batista regime that courted the mafia, allowed all kinds of debauchery, and turned Cuba into a thoroughly corrupt banana republic. I’m not defending the Castro regime but I understand why there was a revolution in Cuba. The economic sanctions the US has imposed around the world are mostly completely unjustified and based on lies and propaganda. As an American, I find them embarrassing.

      1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

        All educated Americans should be ashamed that those same sanctions are being applied to increasing numbers of nations by a government that claims to support free trade.

        1. ke4ram says

          They are! All 10 of them.

          1. disqus_3BrONUAJno says

            I don’t know of that many who understand what true free trade is.

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