New unemployment filings are so high only the Great Depression compares

[turbinetree]

The numbers are staggering and probably underestimated.

By Matthew Yglesias@[e-mail] Apr 16, 2020, 9:40 am EDT

The US Department of Labor registered 5.2 million initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending April 11, bringing the total filings to 22 million since social distancing measures took effect in March — a pace of economic collapse so staggering that the Great Depression is the only comparison.

Last week’s claims slightly improved upon the 6.6 million initial claims the previous week, and the 6.9 million claims the week before that. But even if the peak of the joblessness wave seems to be behind us, the US is in uncharted waters. Before the coronavirus outbreak, the worst-ever initial claims number was about 700,000 job losses back in 1982.

Economists offer two caveats to this data. One is that the recently enacted CARES Act to cushion the economic blow of the pandemic expands the scope of unemployment insurance eligibility to cover more independent contractors and gig economy workers. So claims are surging, at least in part, because more people are eligible, making comparisons to past data slightly invalid.

At the same time, state UI systems — which are often built on obsolete code, starved of resources by state governments, and not designed to handle this volume of claims — have become overwhelmed, with people unable to get through on the phone or online. Consequently, the actual number of people trying to apply for assistance likely exceeds the numbers the country is seeing.

https://www.vox.com/2020/4/16/21223049/unemployment-filings-high-great-depression

[Historic NY]

1. Brother can you spare a dime?

[Wounded Bear]

2. Back then, the numbers were kind of primitive and unsophisticated...

I always take those numbers from the first half of the 20th Century with a large grain of salt.

So we're probably worse now than then.

[brush]

4. Yes, especially they didn't have unemployment insurance then.

That was still to come as part of FDR's New Deal.

[SoonerPride]

3. The Trump Depression

He owns this.

[rzemanfl]

5. Florida has the answer. Make it impossible to file. Then you don't count. n/t

[roamer65]

6. A lot received severance packages if laid off.

Last edited Thu Apr 16, 2020, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)

You can’t file until the severance runs out, so these numbers will be high for the next few months.

[Tink41]

11. Not true

Just Googled it. Severance does not count as income according to UE rules.

[roamer65]

13. May have changed since I was last laid off in 2007.

Didn’t matter to me, anyway. I went out and got a job two weeks later and double dipped for 5.5 months.

[uponit7771]

7. I think it took years to get to 10% during great depression

[Demsrule86]

22. Keynesian economics...and when Roosevelt attempted to balance the budget in 37, unemployment shot

up. Roosevelt was forced into much of the new deal by desperate need. He was not a liberal when he ran...certainly not a socialist as some say today. I wonder what will come out of what is fast becoming the the second Great Depression or perhaps the Covid19 Great Depression.

[Texaswitchy]

8. Our population is so much larger now then in the 30's.

A lot more people were farm people.

This will be a different kind of depression.

My grandparents could feed themselves.

[honest.abe]

9. Experts believe the current jobless rate is in the range of 12-15 percent..

the worst on record since the Great Depression when unemployment reached 24 percent.

I suspect we might surpass 24 percent in a few months.

[Newest Reality]

10. Hmm....

[turbinetree]

14. That picture says it all..........and now with collapse of economy and food lines being pictured

we have nut jobs protesting, and the media not reporting who is funding the protesting or instigating the protesting that is funded by likes of Devos and her right wing groups, like in Lansing.....................

[Wellstone ruled]

12. Just recieved a text from

our Niece in Minnesota. Her Hubby has been trying to file his Unemployment Claim since Monday. Minnesota has a system where based on the last four digits of your SS number,you have a assigned day for filing. Well,Yesterday was his hard assigned day . Well,the system was so overloaded yesterday that it collapsed by mid afternoon and shut down. This morning he was able to complete his phone in contact after doing a speed dial 86 times and a recording came up stating,because of 400k new claims,our system will not being taking any new claims today.

BTW,he tried using the Web Site and it is still not working because of the pressure from Claimant's .

[turbinetree]

15. My wife is doing the same thing, she is applying to meet the requirements and then she has

until Monday to call in....................

[Wellstone ruled]

16. Did a stint at the Minny

Department of Labor Processing Unemployment Claims in the late Eighties. As a Temp,the system was so darn easy toe navigate at that time. Plug and play,something since has destroyed the User friendly filing and if needed,do a phone call.

Plug in the persons name and Soc and away you go. Even the contested filings were easy to handle,usually with in less than a week. If the HR person did not or was not willing to take care of any conflict at the contact call,you moved the Filer to receive status until the conflict was solved. Very rare you had to stop weekly payments.

[turbinetree]

17. Yea I remember those days having unemployment it was easy.............and you could get extended.

but now days every 13 weeks and then your done up to 26 weeks, now that I am retired, I have a steady income and pension gotta love my union ....................

[Wellstone ruled]

18. Always said,if you do not vote,

you have no right to bitch. And if you do,pay special attention where you mark your ballot. Minny had a stretch of Rethug controlled legislative sessions and what is happening is just ALEC coming back to bite them in the ass.

And yes,being retired is a great feeling. Teamster Pension.

[turbinetree]

19. I always vote........................AMFA and AFL-CIO ................

[Wellstone ruled]

20. Carry on with the good work.

[turbinetree]

21. You also..............and stay safe.............

[uponit7771]

23. +1, that's what people are thinking; the UE system is backlogged and out of capacity

[Wellstone ruled]

24. For all those folks

in my old home State,well,this mess has been brewing for several years and the Rethug Party is to blame for all the delay and stupid rules and hoops claimants need to go through.

As we always said while living in Minny,seems most of my fellow Minnesota residents always voted for divided Government. And we had a habit of electing some real dusfus's as Governors. Well,that chicken has come home to roost.

[Hamlette]

25. my state's UI office had more claims 3-15 to 4-3 than in all of 2019

The UI system is 100% funded by the federal government (through UI taxes on employers). The only way a state can screw it up is by refusing to let their UI departments draw down federal funds. Its evil.