No relief in sight: millions continue to clog the #unemployment rolls, as the administration’s patchwork solution to unemployment, Lost Wages Assistance, is running dry. dol.gov/ui/data.pdf
The number of #unemployment claims remains stubbornly high, as the total number of initial claims was at 1.45 million last week, including 860,000 for state UI and 660,000 million for PUA.
These claims have stayed between 1.3 to 1.7 million each week for the last month, indicating that continuing waves of temporary and permanent layoffs have yet to return to comfortable levels.
In addition to these new claims, there are still 28.3 million workers relying on continued claims for benefits -- 12.6 million on state benefits, down 6.7% from last week but still 6x pre-pandemic levels.
Part of the decline is that people are running out of state benefits. PEUC claims for the long-term unemployed are at 1.5 million, up 25% from last month.
Amidst this reliance on UI programs, it’s clear that Trump’s Lost Wages Assistance program is not up to the task or size of our jobs crisis.
7 states have already exhausted the full LWA grants available to them, and FL announced it would have to cut off aid early due to the matching rules. 20 states still have not paid out ANY benefits.
LWA has paid out $15.9 billion in benefits -- equivalent to just 16.7% of what would have been paid out if the Senate had passed the HEROES Act before PUC expired. #Savethe600 tcf.org/content/report…
Congress should use the time it has left before the House adjourns and restart PUC benefits and extend the aid programs in the CARES Act through the winter of 2021. Americans are relying on them to do their jobs and keep the economy afloat.
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