Another 3.2M file for unemployment

Illinois claims drop slightly as IDES urges gig workers to file ahead of next week

Shops and stores have shut across the nation in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)

By Ted Cox

Nationwide claims for unemployment benefits dropped only slightly last week to 3.2 million, making more than 33 million U.S. workers who have lost their jobs since the coronavirus economic lockdown took hold in mid-March.

The U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that 3,169,000 filed for benefits last week, down 677,000 from the revised figures for the week before. It was the first time new claims fell below the 3.3 million logged in mid-March, which shattered the previous record of 695,000 in a week set during the 1982 recession. In between, the record was reset at 6.9 million in the last full week of March.

Claims in Illinois dropped slightly to 74,476, down more than 7,000 from the 81,596 who filed the week before.

Statewide claims may yet rise again, however, as the Illinois Department of Employment Security repeated calls this week for so-called gig workers to file for benefits, ahead of the introduction of a new enrollment portal for contract workers, freelancers, tipped workers, and ride-share drivers scheduled to be rolled out next week.

Sometimes called 1099 workers, for the federal income statement they file with tax returns rather than the W-2 form for salaried employees, they were urged by IDES in a news release this week to “first apply for regular unemployment insurance before applying for benefits” under a new federal relief program when the new application portal opens Monday on the IDES website

IDES advised that those workers may be ruled ineligible according to the old rules for unemployment, but “can then appeal that decision by providing verification of wages earned, or they can submit a claim for benefits” under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, the formal name of the federal relief package.

“Filing for regular unemployment also provides claimants the opportunity to select how they want to receive benefits,” the IDES release added. “Eligible claimants can choose between direct deposit or a debit card onto which their benefits will be loaded. Debit cards can take up to one to two weeks to receive in the mail while direct-deposit payments take two to three days once a claimant completes their weekly certification for benefits.”

According to the release, “Claims will be backdated to the individuals’ first week of unemployment, but no earlier than Feb. 2, 2020, and will continue for as long as the individual remains unemployed as a result of COVID-19, but no later than the week ending Dec. 26, 2020.”

The federally funded PUA program runs through this year. Congress also provided federal funding through 2020 for state work-share unemployment programs, which provide prorated benefits to workers who remain employed but with their hours reduced. Gov. Pritzker has called it “an excellent program,” and the state has a work-share law on the books, but it was never implemented under former Gov. Rauner. State Sen. Steve Stadelman of Rockford, lead sponsor of the original legislation, has called for full implementation, and Pritzker is expected to address it this week when he focuses on unemployment during his daily coronavirus briefing.

The U.S. Labor Department reported: “The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 15.5 percent for the week ending April 25, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from the previous week's unrevised rate.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was scheduled to release the April unemployment rate on Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 4.4 in March after reaching a 50-year low of 3.5 percent over the winter. CNN reported Thursday that 1 in 5 U.S. workers had filed for benefits since mid-March, which would make for an unemployment rate of 20 percent.