Another 5.2M file for unemployment
Illinois jobless claims drop to 141k, 60k less than last week, but 22M have filed nationally over the last month
IDES offices like this one in Chicago’s Lincoln Square neighborhood are closed during the coronavirus crisis. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Nationwide jobless claims dropped from the previous week, but remained near record levels in figures released Thursday, with another 5.2 million workers filing for unemployment.
Over the four weeks ending last Saturday, 22 million people have filed new claims for unemployment.
Illinois unemployment claims dropped by almost a third last week, but according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor the state still saw 141,000 people file, down 60,000 from the 201,000 who filed the week before.
Nationally, 6.6 million filed for unemployment the week before, a record 6.9 million the week before that, and 3.3 million the week before that, which shattered the previous record of 695,000 set in 1982 during President Reagan’s first-term recession.
According to a news release from the Labor Department, the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 8.2 percent for the week ending April 4, up 3.1 percentage points from the previous week's unrevised rate. “This marks the highest level of the seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate in the history of the seasonally adjusted series,” according to the release. “The previous high was 7 percent in May of 1975.”
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia blamed the jobless figures on the economic shutdown brought on by the coronavirus crisis, issuing a statement saying: “Today’s report reflects the continuing impact of the important public health measures being taken to defeat the coronavirus. Americans are making sacrifices for the well-being of the country.”
Although Scalia insisted, “The Trump administration is moving quickly to support workers and small businesses during this difficult time,” he’s been under fire for issuing guidance on congressional relief packages that actually deter so-called gig workers — like freelancers, independent contractors, tipped workers, and ride-share drivers — from claiming expanded unemployment benefits. Gov. Pritzker has pledged those idled 1099 workers — as they’re sometimes known by the IRS income statements they file, instead of the W-2s for salaried employees — should be able to file and receive benefits by the week of May 11.
According to Scalia, 29 states are now paying the $600 weekly boost in unemployment benefits under a coronavirus relief package passed by Congress, including Illinois. He added that the Labor Department “has disbursed more than $500 million in administrative funding to states to help them contend with the surge in claims and burden on their staff and computer systems, and additional funding will be released as states apply and meet the requirements set by Congress.”
Scalia made reference to how unemployment has actually been limited by incentives in those relief packages for companies that furlough employees — allowing them to maintain health insurance — rather than lay them off entirely. Unemployment figures have also been held down by difficulties across the nation in the mass of laid-off workers attempting to file at the same time, including with the Illinois Department of Employment Security.
The most recent unemployment rate released by the Labor Department was 4.4 percent for March, but Fortune magazine reported Thursday that the actual unemployment rate was most likely approaching 18 percent. Bloomberg reported this week the unemployment rate could surge past 20 percent and on to 30 percent — three times higher than the worst of the Great Recession a decade ago, and even topping the 25 percent unemployment rate estimated during the Great Depression.
The next formal Labor Department report on the unemployment rate for April is scheduled to be released May 8.