Not to mention the effect the loss of employment, and the resulting financial stress, is having on millions. This week, the number of jobless claims increased by 3.84 million, bringing the unemployment tally to a whopping 30.3 million, which experts say is an undercount. “The Economic Policy Institute earlier this week estimated that the current claims level probably undercounts by as much as 12 million those who are eligible for benefits but not getting them due to the inability to file or other roadblocks,” reports CNBC.
The Patriot Post
May 5, 2020
1.
Another 3.8 million U.S. workers filed new claims for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The new figures bring the total over six weeks to more than 30 million as the coronavirus crisis continues to shut down businesses. The once unthinkable total could even be an undercount, economists say, as many states have been overwhelmed by the rush of applications for unemployment benefits, which Congress have extended to include self-employed taxpayers. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that about 50 percent more people than were counted might have been eligible but found the process too daunting. “The problem is even bigger than the data suggest,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the left-leaning research institute. [The New York Times]
Yahoo
May 5, 2020
Las páginas web y oficinas estatales se encuentran colapsadas por la cantidad de personas que intentan hacer uso de su subsidio. Una interesante encuesta del Economic Policy Institute dió a conocer que por cada 10 personas que solicitaron el subsidio hay tres o cuatro que lo intentaron infructuosamente y otras dos que ni siquiera lo intentaron por la dificultad del proceso. Encuéntralo en este enlace de Univisión
Ahoramismo
May 5, 2020
A survey conducted in mid-April by Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, shows that for every 10 people who said they successfully filed for unemployment benefits during the previous four weeks, 3-4 people “tried to apply but could not get through the system to make a claim.”
Gainesville Times
May 5, 2020
A key reason for that emerges from a survey by the Economic Policy Institute. It found that up to 12 million more people have lost jobs but haven’t filed a claim for benefits, either because they couldn’t get through to their state’s overwhelmed system or they didn’t try, perhaps because it was too difficult.
“These findings imply the official count of unemployment insurance claims likely drastically understates the extent of employment reductions,” wrote Ben Zipperer and Elise Gould, economists at EPI.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
May 5, 2020
The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that for every 10 people able to successfully file for unemployment, three to four couldn’t get through the system to make a claim, and one to two chose not to because it was too difficult. In total, the study concludes that 9 million to 14 million eligible people were thwarted from accessing benefits by these systemic failures.
The Washington Examiner
May 5, 2020
There are other avenues to protect small businesses and their employees in this time of crisis, and these mechanisms would reach more people and help more communities. For example, as the Economic Policy Institute notes: A paycheck guarantee program would be far simpler to administer and would more effectively stabilize employment and business in this moment.
NC Policy Watch
May 5, 2020
“Basically we passed one really big bill, it lasted through the end of 2010 and then it kind of turned off,” said Josh Bivens, the director of research at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “By that point, Congress had changed hands and everything shifted toward more austerity.”
Both Bivens and Drezner say that the stimulus packages already passed aren’t enough. “Given the shocking size of the contraction we’re facing, it’s going to be too small,” Bivens said, citing new numbers from the Congressional Budget Office predicting that unemployment could remain in the double digits in 2021. “The CBO projections look pretty solid to me and they’re kind of horrifying.”
Bivens predicts that the “real test” for Congress will come after the worst of the pandemic is over, when people are returning to work and the economy is slowly reopening, but unemployment is still rampant and millions continue to struggle. “I think almost everyone on Capitol Hill is like, Yes, during a recession, you need to do a big stimulus package, you need to run up the debt,” he said. “But then just as soon as that recession is over they want to get back to worrying about deficits and debt.”
VICE
May 5, 2020