DOL numbers indicate that 22.8 million workers are either receiving unemployment benefits or have applied and are waiting to see if they will get benefits (as of October 31, 2020): *But caution, this is an overestimate due to reporting issues (see below)*

Regular state UI: Continued claims PEUC: Continued claims Regular state UI: Initial claims PUA: Continued claims PUA: Initial claims Other programs (mostly STC and EB) Total
Cumulative 7,285,000
 3,961,060 751,000  9,332,610
  721,927
 778,746 0

 

Caution: This is a substantial overestimate. For one thing, initial claims for regular state UI and PUA should be nonoverlapping—that is how DOL has directed agencies to report them—but some individuals are erroneously being counted as being in both programs. Also, some states are including retroactive payments in their continuing PUA claims, which would also lead to double-counting.

Click here for notes.

Seasonally adjusted data are used for regular state UI claims; seasonally adjusted data are not available for the other components of the chart. Regular state UI continued claims are for the week ending October 24; PEUC continued claims are for the week ending October 17; regular state UI initial claims are for the week ending October 31. PUA continued claims are for the week ending October 17; PUA initial claims are for the weeks ending October 24 and October 31. “Other programs” are continued claims in other programs for the week ending October 17. A full list of programs can be found in the bottom panel of the table on page 4 at this link: https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.

Source: Department of Labor (DOL) Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims (News Release), retrieved from DOL, https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf, November 5, 2020.

View the underlying data on epi.org.