Over the last week, I have been consumed with pain and anger over the police murders of George Floyd and so many other Black people—murders rooted in a long history of white supremacy and lynchings in the U.S. 1/
Our long history of white supremacy has profound effects on the labor market. Recessions hit Black workers harder than white workers b/c of things like occupational segregation, discrimination, & other labor market disparities rooted in systemic racism. 2/ epi.org/publication/bl…
In this thread, I am going to talk about today’s release of unemployment insurance data. These data highlight the deep recession we are now in—a recession that will exacerbate existing racial inequalities by causing greater job loss in black households than white households. 3/
Here we go. Last week, 2.2 million workers applied for unemployment benefits. This is the eleventh week in a row that unemployment claims have been more than twice the *worst* week of the Great Recession. 4/ dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
Of the 2.2 million workers who applied for unemployment benefits last week, 1.6 million applied for regular state unemployment insurance (not seasonally adjusted), and 0.6 million applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. 5/
For the uninitiated, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is the new federal program for workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance (UI), like the self-employed. Note: as of this release, only 35 states and Puerto Rico are reporting PUA claims. 6/
FWIW, I don’t think we should be looking at the cumulative number of initial regular state UI claims over the last 11 weeks as a measure of how many people have applied for UI. It ignores PUA (so is an understatement on that front), but may overstate things in other ways. 7/
Here’s what I think we should do instead (bear with me). A total of 19.2 mill workers had made it through at least the first round of regular state UI processing (known as “continued” claims) by May 23, and 3.5 million have filed initial regular state UI claims on top of that. 8/
And another 10.7 million workers had made it through at least the first round of PUA processing by May 16, and 3.2 million have filed initial PUA claims on top of that. 9/
Yet another 436,000 workers had made it through at least the first round of processing in other unemployment compensation programs by May 16, like Short-Time Compensation (more on that below). 10/
Altogether, that’s 37.2 million workers who are either on unemployment benefits, have been approved and are waiting for benefits, or have applied very recently and are waiting to get approved. That is close to one in four workers. 11/
Note that of the 37.2 million workers “on” unemployment benefits, more than a third are on PUA. Some folks who are talking about these numbers are still only reporting UI, and that’s a mistake. PUA is providing benefits to millions. 12/
Another note about initial claims for UI and PUA: they *should* be completely non-overlapping—that is how DOL has directed state agencies to report them—but some states may be misreporting. 13/
Short-Time Compensation (STC), also known as worksharing, is a fantastic alternative to layoffs where employers reduce work hours rather than lay off workers, and workers get partial UI. But in the latest data, just 88,447 workers were receiving STC. 14/
Here’s a chart that pulls this all together. 15/ 
Policymakers need to do much, much more. For example, a prolonged depression is virtually guaranteed without significant federal aid to state and local governments. 16/ epi.org/blog/a-prolong…
The across-the-board $600 increase in weekly unemployment benefits was probably the most effective part of CARES and should be extended well past its expiration on July 31—at least until unemployment is falling rapidly and is at a manageable level. 17/ epi.org/blog/the-extra…
Congress knows that recessions hit Black households harder, and it also knows that it has the power to take action that will weaken the recession and strengthen the recovery. If it doesn’t act, it will be yet another assault on Black people. 18/
I made a mistake in an earlier tweet in this thread about Short-Time Compensation. Correction: in the latest data, 193,938 workers were receiving STC. 19/
Aaaand this blog post is more or less this tweet thread in blog-post form. 20/ epi.org/blog/close-to-…
Nice blog post from @BLS_gov comparing survey data to unemployment insurance counts blogs.bls.gov/blog/2020/06/0…
