The Labor Department will release its employment report for July on Friday. The June report showed that nearly 18 million Americans were out of work.
We learned Thursday that just shy of 1.2 million people filed first-time claims for jobless benefits last week.
They join the roughly 30 million Americans who are already claiming unemployment benefits. How many unemployed Americans are there right now?
Let’s start with those unemployment claims.
Economists like this number because it’s up to date and reflects the actual number of claims states processed last week, said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM consulting.
“All of the people who were receiving some form of unemployment benefits — and that’s north of 31 million people,” he said.
That includes those on regular state jobless benefits, plus freelancers, gig workers and people unemployed because of COVID-19 who are getting federal pandemic benefits.
On the other hand, the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report for June pegged the number of unemployed Americans at just under 18 million.
But that’s likely lowball right now, said Elise Gould, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute. To be counted as “unemployed,” you have to be actively looking for work.
But in COVID times, “there are many people that are not actually looking because they’re taking the advice of health experts in this country,” Gould said. “Maybe they’re caring for children right now, whose schools are closed.”
Former Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erica Groshen has her own formula for counting total unemployment right now.
“What I’ve been doing is adding up all the people whose jobs have been disrupted — the bulk of them are probably pandemic- or recession-related,” she said.
Including those waiting to be called back from furlough, and part-timers who want full-time work — she comes up with 25 million.
Back in February, before the pandemic hit, 158 million Americans had jobs. So about one in six of them don’t, now.
It’s still the question on everyone’s minds: What’s going on with extra COVID-19 unemployment benefits?
The $600-a-week payments have ended, officially, as of July 31. For now, there is no additional federal pandemic unemployment assistance. House Democrats want to renew the $600 payments. Senate Republicans have proposed giving the unemployed 70% of their most recent salary by this October, when state unemployment offices have had time to reconfigure their computer systems to do those calculations. Until then, jobless workers would just get another $200. But, nothing has been agreed upon yet.
What’s the latest on evictions?
For millions of Americans, things are looking grim. Unemployment is high, and pandemic eviction moratoriums have expired in states across the country. And as many people already know, eviction is something that can haunt a person’s life for years. For instance, getting evicted can make it hard to rent again. And that can lead to spiraling poverty.
Which retailers are requiring that people wear masks when shopping? And how are they enforcing those rules?
Walmart, Target, Lowe’s, CVS, Home Depot, Costco — they all have policies that say shoppers are required to wear a mask. When an employee confronts a customer who refuses, the interaction can spin out of control, so many of these retailers are telling their workers to not enforce these mandates. But, just having them will actually get more people to wear masks.
You can find answers to more questions on unemployment benefits and COVID-19 here.
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30 million? 18 million? How many Americans are out of work right now? - Marketplace
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