In the early days of the pandemic,
Some states are still dealing with a backlog of claims and appeals from 2020 and 2021, when federal pandemic unemployment programs were enacted that greatly expanded eligibility and weekly benefits.
A strong labor market over the past year, with low unemployment and few layoffs, gave state systems something of a break from dealing with new claims, which fell to a record low of 166,000 in March. But with the economy slowing and layoffs increasing, jobless claims rose more than 50 percent for the first time since the start of the spring, to 260,000 in the week that ended Saturday. And on
So how prepared is the economy for further increases in jobless claims?
There is some good news for unemployment insurance or UI systems across the country
“The Biden administration, they’ve tried to get to low-hanging fruit,” he said, “trying to identify the business processes that are slowing things down, try[ing] to get states to fix them.”
He said some states have launched technology overhauls, but they won’t roll out until mid-2020. “We may have a recession before these new programs are put in place.”
“We now have teams of experts in 24 different states,” explained Michele Evermore, deputy director of policy at
“Things are moving faster now than during the pandemic,” she said. “Unfortunately, that’s a pretty low bar.”
She added that the new system “tracks people to needing to use the Internet and an online portal to do everything related to their benefits,” from applying to updating information and appealing denials.
“While I’m sure there is some efficiency on the part of the agencies — because these technologies are built for the agencies — unfortunately, they’re not designed or built with claimants or employers in mind.”
The new system creates barriers in particular for low-income workers and immigrants, who may not have easy access to the Internet or English language skills, Simon-Michel said. “For most of the people we see, they’re still struggling to navigate the system, get to grips with new technology and it’s still very difficult to reach
Meanwhile, there are widespread staff shortages in unemployment agencies across the country, he said
“They have been working overtime for several years. They suffer a lot of verbal abuse in the course of their work. And so we lost a lot of trained workers to unemployment insurance.”
As Evermore told a congressional hearing last week, “Turnover is very high, further reducing limited capacity. Unless we invest in staff and systems, they will be less effective in responding to the next crisis.”
Even if states work out their staffing and technology issues, there are still big differences between them when it comes to which workers are eligible for benefits, how much they get paid per week and how long they can draw benefits before running out of eligibility. benefits.
“The pandemic has really exposed long-standing systemic problems in the UI system,” he said
That’s because most states disqualify part-time workers, temporary workers, people who earned too little money in previous quarters, and independent contractors. And states are shortening the length of benefits, Gehry said — which nationally was 26 weeks before the pandemic began.
“We’re actually up to 13 states that now offer less than 26 weeks, with several offering only 12 weeks of benefits.”
States are also reducing eligibility by tightening job search requirements, for example
“Fewer than 3 in 10 unemployed people receive an unemployment check,” Stettner said, referring to the “receipt rate” in
In some states like
Average weekly benefit levels also vary widely and are no longer boosted by federal pandemic payments, which range from
Finally, despite recent technological improvements, most filers still wait a long time before benefits start flowing, said Simon-Michel of Legal Aid of Philadelphia.
“People are not getting paid right now at the most important time – it’s the first two months after someone loses a job, the first time a rent payment becomes due after you’ve stopped getting a salary,” she said.
According to a user interface datasheet published by