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| DATE | 2020-05-14 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] nobody is working and economy collapses
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Nearly 3 Million Sought Jobless Benefits Last Week
Number seeking jobless aid has subsided since initial layoffs surge but
is still at historically high levels

Businesses remained closed in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Tuesday.
PHOTO: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES
By Sarah Chaney and Gwynn Guilford
Updated May 14, 2020 8:36 am ET
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More than 2.9 million workers applied for unemployment benefits last
week, with 36.5 million total applications in two months of the
coronavirus impact.
The number of Americans seeking jobless aid is still at historically
high levels but has subsided since an initial surge in layoffs drove
claims up to a weekly peak of nearly 7 million at the end March.
Initial jobless claims
Source: Labor Department
Note: Seasonally adjusted, latest figure is preliminary
.million
May 3-9: 2.98 million
Jan. ’20
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“The numbers are very high, but they’re stepping down every week, and I
see no reason why that decline in filings wouldn’t continue,” Keith
Hall, chief economist for the Council of Economic Advisers under former
President George W. Bush said ahead of Thursday’s report. “Employers are
likely poised to bring people back, but right now we’re in a holding
pattern.”
States including Utah, Texas and Indiana have lifted some business
restrictions enacted earlier in the crisis to slow the spread of
coronavirus. Governors are seeking to increase testing capacity and
build contact-tracing teams as they move toward easing their lockdowns.
Meanwhile, the ranks of workers drawing on unemployment insurance
continues to grow as states process applications.

The number of Americans seeking jobless aid remains historically high
but has subsided since a late-March surge. A drive-up job fair in
Gardena, Calif.
PHOTO: CHRIS CARLSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Have you been temporarily let go or furloughed from work? Tell us your
story in the form at the end of this article.
Jilma Guevara is one person who has drawn on such benefits after losing
work because of the pandemic.
Until March, Ms. Guevara conducted cargo security at Miami International
Airport, ensuring that nothing illegal or dangerous was loaded onto
flights operated by American Airlines Group Inc. On March 23, 10 minutes
before her shift ended, she was laid off by her employer, Eulen America.
The next day, Ms. Guevara, who earned around $17 an hour, said she spent
12½ hours online trying to apply for unemployment benefits before her
application finally went through.
After a month, the unemployment checks started to arrive at the end of
April, putting Ms. Guevara, age 58, on firmer footing. But she sees few
possibilities for a new job, either right now or when the extra $600 a
week of federal unemployment benefits expires at the end of July.
“I think I can’t go anywhere because everything is the same everywhere,”
she said.
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Many states are receiving applications under a provision of a federal
stimulus bill that allows workers who were largely ineligible for
benefits before the pandemic, including independent contractors and
self-employed people, to apply for unemployment benefits. Because those
claims aren’t seasonally adjusted, they are excluded from the main
claims figures.
State labor departments have been reallocating staff from other
departments to process jobless claims and answer phone calls during the
economic crisis. Some have turned to tech giants including Amazon.com
Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google for new technology to handle the
historic number of claims. Such efforts helped Rhode Island begin
rolling out a federal unemployment program faster than other states, and
Kansas to field more calls than earlier in the crisis.
Many Americans, like Sheryl Gillard of Charleston, S.C., are still
waiting to receive their unemployment benefits.
Ms. Gillard, 62, lost her customer-service position at a college
bookstore in mid-March when Trident Technical College in Charleston shut
down.
She said she still has yet to receive her first payment after submitting
her application for unemployment benefits near the end of March. She has
started searching for a new job and is open to working in the medical field.
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“In the meantime, where are these benefits we were supposed to be
getting?” she said. “I’m just furious, honestly.”
Ms. Gillard said she is thankful for members of her church who have been
giving her money while she is jobless and waiting for unemployment
payments, which she hopes to receive before her next car bill comes due.
A spokeswoman for South Carolina’s labor department said that it has
received more than 453,000 claims in the past seven weeks and that most
have been processed within three weeks.
—Lauren Weber contributed to this article.
Have you been temporarily let go or furloughed from work? We'd like to
hear about your experiences for a future reporting project. Tell us more
about what you do, how long you've been out of work, and what you know
about the future of your employment here:
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