Posted on 05/21/2020 8:53:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Department of Labor reported Thursday that another 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment last week continuing a nine-week stretch of new jobless claims shattering the previous record for the most first-time filings in a single week.
More than 38 million Americans have now filed for unemployment since pandemic lockdowns initiated an economic self-destruction wreaking havoc on American livelihoods and contributing to the great anxiety that the pandemic presents to a nation in distress.
The April jobs report released from the Department of Labor this month shows the U.S. reached record levels of unemployment within the span of just two months nearing 15 percent since it officially began being recorded in 1948. Economists estimate the nation hit 25 percent unemployment during the Great Depression which took years to climb. At the rate Americans are losing their jobs today, the U.S. will likely rival those numbers from the depression 90 years ago far sooner. The previous record held for most new claims filed within a span of seven days was set in 1982 with 695,000 new filings.
To confront the rapidly rising jobless claims in March, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act beefing up unemployment benefits with a flat $600 a week on top of whatever states already provided creating a whole host of other problems on its own.
By ramping up jobless benefits by an exorbitant amount, lawmakers incentivized workers to seek the government handout over remaining in their full-time position while making it far easier to qualify for the insurance.
A pair of economists at the conservative Heritage Foundation estimate that Congress likely inflated unemployment by nearly 14 million with expanded benefits and eligibility requirements. The median full-time worker earning less than $48,000 a year, they found, would bring home 15 percent more from government assistance than their pre-pandemic wages offered. Meanwhile, essential workers have seen no increase in pay throughout the crisis.
The increased benefits have posed an obstacle for businesses trying to rehire laid off staff as is required in the provisions for federal loans issued under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) passed in the CARES Act to be forgiven.
One Washington state spa owner was astonished at the reaction of her employees who were upset she secured a rare loan under the PPP before the eventually depleted funds were replenished in April.
“It was a firestorm of hated about the situation,” Jamie Black-Lewis told CNBC. “I couldn’t believe it. On what planet am I competing with unemployment?”
While the increased benefits are expected to expire in July, House Democrats passed a $3 trillion stimulus package dubbed the HEROES Act that seeks to extend them through next year.
Rachel Greszler, one of the Heritage researchers who studied Congress’ generous unemployment package said such an extension with no cap on earnings would be even further counterproductive to the nation’s goals.
“The HEROES Act’s perverse unemployment benefits threaten the well-being of the workers they claim to want to help,” Greszler told The Federalist. “Instead of tantalizing workers with unemployment benefits equal to 150 or 200 percent of their usual earnings, policymakers should be focused on helping the one-in-five Americans who have lost their jobs reconnect with their previous employers or find new employment instead of incentivizing them to remain unemployed until 2021.”
The nation’s economy however, continues to crumble even as states have begun to partially reopen to blunt the impact allowing businesses to operate with only a fraction of their original capacity.
A new report released last week shows more than 100,000 small businesses have already permanently gone under as a result of the lockdowns.
The Rats love the desperation.
Here little people, let us rule you, and we will give you some crumbs.
The Rat Governors are doing everything they can to get as may people on unemployment as possible. Half Whit fast tracked all claims while she dug in and refuses to open the state except the sparse northernmost part of the state. It was a token concession to keep the Mi Sc from moving on her.
But how many have gone back to “Werk”?
As Stu Varney would ask
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WELCOME TO A LITTLE TASTE OF THE OLD SOVIET UNION, KAMERAD
Where the government runs your life and livelihood...
BTW do the Public Employees get backpay for not working this period?? (If not THEY ALL have guaranteed jobs that will resume when wrecked businesses wont).
SANE People might start pointing out that Non-Essential Government Workers ARE JUST THAT, and that we could ditch at least half of them with no actual loss (and gain back the huge pile of tax money the socialists squander paying hand-sitters whom they count on to vote for them).
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If people are unemployed they will have to rely on begging for alms in the form of government money.
Then Bernie Sanders socialism looks more efficient: stay home, collect socialist money all the time.
How many will have the feeling of embarrassment and lack of personal control that people usually feel when they lose a job?
They now have to fight an epic battle to get America open for work again, against the Whitmers and Cuomos who pander to the ones who like ongoing taxpayer money.
Anyone else noticed that their local media outlets, small market in my case, are not covering local layoffs, local businesses going bust...?
I wonder how many of these are Federal, State or Local Government workers? They stop you from workers and send tax bills.
The waitresses and people who clean rooms at hotels, people who do hair or nails, Or people who own these business’s are hurt. And there are millions of others. Many are in the part time world created by democrats. The others are just small businesses. Democrats say they care about these people, but they don’t. Democrats are public workers. Anyone else who votes democrat are fools.
CA sucks....but we knew that.
Are workers returning to their jobs being removed from the unemployment rills???
now would be a great time for folks to get temp work working on rebuilding our nation’s roads and cleaning the sides of highways etc while traffic is way down- coulda been doing this all along- working outdoors- social distancing not a problem in most cases- course not everyone could do this work- but many could and would likely jump at a chance to just get working again-
There’s likely a lot of outdoor work that could be done without exposing people to the virus- clean up parks- repair parks, animal surveys in parks, etc etc etc- get peopel out into the great outdoors while governors fart around trying to decide when to relinquish the control they are stealing, back to the people
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