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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1328971
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1328971
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My final day on the project Iāve had for two years is tomorrow, but I wonāt be filing for unemployment.
In Wisconsin, the system has been so gutted (under Scotty) that folks are reporting 8 - 16 weeks before the first check is received.
Iām starting a job at the local Target next week - I wonāt earn as much, possibly, as I would on UE, but at least I know the check will arrive in reasonable time.
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Sorry to hear that. I think that is the way it is in many cases. Our system is so screwed in many states against the workers. Good luck.
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Unemployment Benefits Claims Drops To 1 Million
And this is supposed to be good news?
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Iām never quite clear on this - is this new claims only?
ETA: I just saw elsewhere, yes, it is first time - never mind.
The other piece on this:
My buddy I used to work with reported that Accenture is booting 25,000 folks at the end of the month.
The US ones will hit next month (September).
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Corporations were allowed to tap government loans if they halted layoffs until October. Since the PPP fund wasnāt replenished there will be a massive wave of job losses during October unless Congress acts. And I donāt see Dems backing down on their demands for a larger bill if doing so makes the economy appear better during the 2-3 week run-up to the election. All the pressure to relent on a new relief bill should be on the GOP, but they donāt act rationally so thereās no predicting whatās going to happen.
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Well, weāll have to see how many of these 25,000 are actually in the US. This is a worldwide RIF (reduction in force). I was a victim of this back in the 90s when Price Waterhouse and Coopers and Lybrand merged. Both were equally hit, but it was also worldwide. So PPP may not matter as much here.
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The airlines are still cutting jobs too:
DALLAS ā American Airlines said Tuesday that it will cut more than 40,000 jobs, including 19,000 through furloughs and layoffs, in October as it struggles with a sharp downturn in travel because of the pandemic.
Executives said the furloughs can be avoided only if the federal government gives airlines another $25 billion to help them cover labor costs for six more months.
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The nuanced report is a mix of new and seasonally adjusted claims. Total unadjusted claims provides more clarity on the overall unemployment picture. Of course, regional unemployment can be extrapolated through state-by-state reports.
The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 8 was 27,017,232, a decrease of 1,042,323 from the previous week. There were 1,644,315 persons claiming benefits in all programs in the comparable week in 2019.
The year-over-year data is one of my favorite barometers to gauge our current situation.
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So it would be nice if Biden would start with the āare you better off than you were a year agoā idea. 27 million is nothing to sneeze at as an indicator of how bad this all is.
@bonvivant, I saw the AA layoffs too. I donāt much like AA for an airline (have had a lot of trouble with them in the last couple of years), but the workers, I have sympathy for.
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TPM, why are you merely printing the AP story?
These few comments provide more perspective than AP. Get to know your readers and incorporate their experiences into your articles.
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ābut at least I know the check will arrive in reasonable timeā
We have to focus on positives ,that will keep us all going.
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" Newly-Filed Weekly Unemployment Benefits Claims Drop To 1 Million"
" Hurricane Laura Slams Into Gulf Coast, Weakens to Category 2 Storm
Nearly 500,000 customers in Louisiana and Texas are without power as storm threatens U.S. fuel and chemical industries"
Suffering,How much of this will be in Trumps speech tonight ? ZERO !
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We need something on the scale of the WPA to deal with the changes in the economy, sometimes called the Great Reset. At the moment, the Green New Deal is the only proposal on the table that sustains employment and makes the transition to a low-carbon economy, which the IPCC says needs to happen globally by 2070 or no policy is really going to matter much. In other words, policy design needs to focus on the grandchildren of todayās first-graders.
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For the umpteenth time here at TPM, this is ONLY the number of first time filers.
There are at least 16 millionā¦ thatās million with a capital āMā! ā¦ unemployed Americans receiving unemployment compensation because (you guessed it) they have been thrown out of their jobs and canāt find new jobs.
Current beneficiaries have to prove every week that they have been looking for work and have not turned down any job offer they have gotten that is remotely related to what they know how to do or could learn to do.
TPM - along with much rest of the press - is just so incapable of getting this simple story right that it makes you wonder.
Iām not so sure about that - normally, yes.
https://esd.wa.gov/newsroom/job-search
At least here in WI, that was suspended in April until next week. I will bet on an extension for that.
ETA: Connecticut has also waived it (my familyās farm is there and son in law is unemployed):
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It means the bus is heading for that bridge abutment at 55 instead of 60. Maybe. A drop of 10% in new claims is almost down in the noise, statistically speaking.
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You are absolutely right about the enormous scale of the response we need. But we are not without a candidate who both understands that and has actually proposed itā¦ in significant detail I might add. That candidateās name is Joe Biden. If you havenāt taken a look at it, Please do. I think you would be heartened by it.
Now it would also be nice if TPM would have been covering Bidenās plans, but thatās not apparently in its wheelhouse. Because if TPM subscribers - well informed, well intentioned folks - are not aware, then just about nobody is.
But the problem is not just TPM, its with the Biden campaign as well. It is so focused on The Plague, it has forfeited public support for Biden on the economy to Donald Trump. Political malpractice of the highest order.
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There are millions more out of work yet not receiving unemployment because theyāre ineligible for a variety of reasons or have exhausted their benefits and are still out of workā¦ Reporting on the unemployment situation merely from the vantage point of how many people are collecting checks, or are eligible to collect them, misses that larger story and downplays the severity of our economic troubles.
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You are absolutely right about that, too.