1/ In the week ending 8/8, North Carolina received 13,635 initial claims for regular state #UnemploymentInsurance, down from 16,503 the week before. A year ago, the total number of initial claims was 3,158. #NCeconomy
2/ Additionally, North Carolina received 8,602 initial claims for the new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, which covers certain workers normally ineligible for unemployment insurance. The figure a week earlier was 12,205. (NC began accepting PUA claims on 4/24.)
3/ Last week, North Carolina received 234,405 continuing claims for regular #UnemploymentInsurance, along with 192,247 continuing claims for PUA. #NCeconomy
4/ Last week, too, North Carolina received 199,881 claims for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program (PEUC), which allows people who exhaust their regular benefits to claim up to 13 more weeks of benefits. A week prior, the number of claims was 189,498. #NCeconomy
5/ The # of PEUC claims in North Carolina has been climbing rapidly. This reflects the fact that NC caps max. benefit duration at 12 weeks, not 26 weeks as is done in most states. People here are exhausting their regular benefits, while those in other states still have benefits.
6/ A North Carolina worker who exhausts PEUC then could receive up to 9.6 weeks of Extended Benefits (EB). In the week ending 7/25, which is the most recent one with data, North Carolina handled 4,816 EB claims, up from 4,124. This likely will increase in coming weeks. #NCeconomy
7/ North Carolina's short maximum benefit duration means that job losers in late March & April have exhausted or are about to exhaust their regular benefits. If NC set max. benefits at 26 weeks, as most states do and as NC did pre-2013, unemployed workers would be better off.
8/ Workers who lost their jobs in late March exhausted their regular #UnemploymentInsurance benefits in mid-June & will exhaust their PEUC benefits in early September. #ncpol
9/ This is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of deliberate policy choices made by the @NCLeg back in 2013. It is a feature of the state system, not a bug. #ncpol propublica.org/article/how-no…
10/ Even more mind-blowing is the fact that elected officials like @ThomTillis who helped create this unfortunate situation campaign on it as being an accomplishment that helps unemployed North Carolinians! #ncpol theintercept.com/2020/08/09/sen…
11/ According to @NCCommerce, North Carolina paid out $6.9 billion in #UnemploymentInsurance between 3/15 & 8/12. That includes $365 million in PUA, $276 million in PEUC, & $4.6 BILLION in Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (PUC) benefits, which topped up checks by $600/week.
12/ The week of 7/25 was the final one for which the PUC was payable. The expiration of that benefit will cut the average weekly benefit in NC by 71%, falling to $244/week from $874/week. The collective loss would translate to $364 million/week. #NCeconomy tcf.org/content/commen…
13/ The loss of the PUC supplement is resulting in pronounced hardship for workers across the state who are unable to return to due to the fallout from the #COVID19 crisis, as @sophiekasakove & others have reported for @TheHerald_Sun. #NCeconomy heraldsun.com/news/coronavir…
14/ The Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) program announced by the Trump Administration is no substitute for the PUC supplement. The program is based on the appearance of doing something without doing much at all. #SaveThe600 nelp.org/news-releases/…
15/ Among its flaws, the LWA program has capped funding, which would be exhausted within a few weeks given the scale of unemployment in the US. PUC, in contrast, provided a set benefit for every week a claimant is eligible. #SaveThe600
16/ The LWA program also excludes many workers. Anyone receiving a regular #UnemploymentInsurance benefit of less than $100/week, for one, would be ineligible. This harms low-wage workers. Similarly, it is unclear if PUA & PEUC recipients could benefit depending on state choices.
17/ Sadly, this is what one would expect from policymakers who are unconcerned with the economic crisis, lack a basic understanding of how an important government insurance system works, & have worked to compromise the system's ability to deliver meaningful aid in a crisis.
18/ The LWA program simply confuses the situation & leaves unemployed workers to fend for themselves. Congress must, at a minimum, extend the PUC program ASAP with retroactive payments, as @BarnettNed explains in @HeraldSun. #ExtendUI #SaveThe600 heraldsun.com/opinion/articl…
19/ The LWA proposal does tacitly admit that the labor market is in bad shape, which is why workers are struggling. The problem isn't that the PUC supplement made people "lazy," which is just what recent research has found. news.yale.edu/2020/07/27/yal…
20/ To reiterate, this is not a "normal" recession. It is the result of deliberate choices to "freeze" the economy to protect public health. The goal of #UnemploymentInsurance currently is to help people pay their bills until a broad economic re-opening is possible. #NCeconomy
21/21 All C ending PUC before conditions normalize is punish working people for actions out of their control, increase hardship, remove spending power from the economy, reduce sales for businesses, & make the recession that much worse. #SaveThe600 #ExtendUI
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