The Senate must pass the $1.9 trillion relief and recovery plan with the UI provisions extended to October 3
Another 1.2 million people applied for unemployment insurance (UI) benefits last week, the last week of February. This included 745,000 people who applied for regular state UI and 437,000 who applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA)—the federal program for workers who are not eligible for regular unemployment insurance, like gig workers.
The 1.2 million who applied for UI last week was roughly the same as the prior week (an increase of 18,000). The four-week moving average of total initial claims was unchanged.
Last week was the 50th straight week total initial claims were greater than the worst week of the Great Recession. (If that comparison is restricted to regular state claims—because we didn’t have PUA in the Great Recession—initial claims last week would have been higher than the sixth-worst week of the Great Recession.)
Continuing unemployment claims in all programs, March 23, 2019–February 13, 2021: *Use caution interpreting trends over time because of reporting issues (see below)*
Date | Regular state UI | PEUC | PUA | Other programs (mostly EB and STC) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2019-03-23 | 1,905,627 | 31,510 | ||
2019-03-30 | 1,858,954 | 31,446 | ||
2019-04-06 | 1,727,261 | 30,454 | ||
2019-04-13 | 1,700,689 | 30,404 | ||
2019-04-20 | 1,645,387 | 28,281 | ||
2019-04-27 | 1,630,382 | 29,795 | ||
2019-05-04 | 1,536,652 | 27,937 | ||
2019-05-11 | 1,540,486 | 28,727 | ||
2019-05-18 | 1,506,501 | 27,949 | ||
2019-05-25 | 1,519,345 | 26,263 | ||
2019-06-01 | 1,535,572 | 26,905 | ||
2019-06-08 | 1,520,520 | 25,694 | ||
2019-06-15 | 1,556,252 | 26,057 | ||
2019-06-22 | 1,586,714 | 25,409 | ||
2019-06-29 | 1,608,769 | 23,926 | ||
2019-07-06 | 1,700,329 | 25,630 | ||
2019-07-13 | 1,694,876 | 27,169 | ||
2019-07-20 | 1,676,883 | 30,390 | ||
2019-07-27 | 1,662,427 | 28,319 | ||
2019-08-03 | 1,676,979 | 27,403 | ||
2019-08-10 | 1,616,985 | 27,330 | ||
2019-08-17 | 1,613,394 | 26,234 | ||
2019-08-24 | 1,564,203 | 27,253 | ||
2019-08-31 | 1,473,997 | 25,003 | ||
2019-09-07 | 1,462,776 | 25,909 | ||
2019-09-14 | 1,397,267 | 26,699 | ||
2019-09-21 | 1,380,668 | 26,641 | ||
2019-09-28 | 1,390,061 | 25,460 | ||
2019-10-05 | 1,366,978 | 26,977 | ||
2019-10-12 | 1,384,208 | 27,501 | ||
2019-10-19 | 1,416,816 | 28,088 | ||
2019-10-26 | 1,420,918 | 28,576 | ||
2019-11-02 | 1,447,411 | 29,080 | ||
2019-11-09 | 1,457,789 | 30,024 | ||
2019-11-16 | 1,541,860 | 31,593 | ||
2019-11-23 | 1,505,742 | 29,499 | ||
2019-11-30 | 1,752,141 | 30,315 | ||
2019-12-07 | 1,725,237 | 32,895 | ||
2019-12-14 | 1,796,247 | 31,893 | ||
2019-12-21 | 1,773,949 | 29,888 | ||
2019-12-28 | 2,143,802 | 32,517 | ||
2020-01-04 | 2,245,684 | 32,520 | ||
2020-01-11 | 2,137,910 | 33,882 | ||
2020-01-18 | 2,075,857 | 32,625 | ||
2020-01-25 | 2,148,764 | 35,828 | ||
2020-02-01 | 2,084,204 | 33,884 | ||
2020-02-08 | 2,095,001 | 35,605 | ||
2020-02-15 | 2,057,774 | 34,683 | ||
2020-02-22 | 2,101,301 | 35,440 | ||
2020-02-29 | 2,054,129 | 33,053 | ||
2020-03-07 | 1,973,560 | 32,803 | ||
2020-03-14 | 2,071,070 | 34,149 | ||
2020-03-21 | 3,410,969 | 36,758 | ||
2020-03-28 | 8,158,043 | 0 | 52,494 | 48,963 |
2020-04-04 | 12,444,309 | 3,802 | 69,537 | 64,201 |
2020-04-11 | 16,249,334 | 31,426 | 216,481 | 89,915 |
2020-04-18 | 17,756,054 | 63,720 | 1,172,238 | 116,162 |
2020-04-25 | 21,723,230 | 91,724 | 3,629,986 | 158,031 |
2020-05-02 | 20,823,294 | 173,760 | 6,361,532 | 175,289 |
2020-05-09 | 22,725,217 | 252,257 | 8,120,137 | 216,576 |
2020-05-16 | 18,791,926 | 252,952 | 11,281,930 | 226,164 |
2020-05-23 | 19,022,578 | 546,065 | 10,010,509 | 247,595 |
2020-05-30 | 18,548,442 | 1,121,306 | 9,597,884 | 259,499 |
2020-06-06 | 18,330,293 | 885,802 | 11,359,389 | 325,282 |
2020-06-13 | 17,552,371 | 783,999 | 13,093,382 | 336,537 |
2020-06-20 | 17,316,689 | 867,675 | 14,203,555 | 392,042 |
2020-06-27 | 16,410,059 | 956,849 | 12,308,450 | 373,841 |
2020-07-04 | 17,188,908 | 964,744 | 13,549,797 | 495,296 |
2020-07-11 | 16,221,070 | 1,016,882 | 13,326,206 | 513,141 |
2020-07-18 | 16,691,210 | 1,122,677 | 13,259,954 | 518,584 |
2020-07-25 | 15,700,971 | 1,193,198 | 10,984,864 | 609,328 |
2020-08-01 | 15,112,240 | 1,262,021 | 11,504,089 | 433,416 |
2020-08-08 | 14,098,536 | 1,376,738 | 11,221,790 | 549,603 |
2020-08-15 | 13,792,016 | 1,381,317 | 13,841,939 | 469,028 |
2020-08-22 | 13,067,660 | 1,434,638 | 15,164,498 | 523,430 |
2020-08-29 | 13,283,721 | 1,547,611 | 14,786,785 | 490,514 |
2020-09-05 | 12,373,201 | 1,630,711 | 11,808,368 | 529,220 |
2020-09-12 | 12,363,489 | 1,832,754 | 12,153,925 | 510,610 |
2020-09-19 | 11,561,158 | 1,989,499 | 10,686,922 | 589,652 |
2020-09-26 | 10,172,332 | 2,824,685 | 10,978,217 | 579,582 |
2020-10-03 | 8,952,580 | 3,334,878 | 10,450,384 | 668,691 |
2020-10-10 | 8,038,175 | 3,711,089 | 10,622,725 | 615,066 |
2020-10-17 | 7,436,321 | 3,983,613 | 9,332,610 | 778,746 |
2020-10-24 | 6,837,941 | 4,143,389 | 9,433,127 | 746,403 |
2020-10-31 | 6,452,002 | 4,376,847 | 8,681,647 | 806,430 |
2020-11-07 | 6,037,690 | 4,509,284 | 9,147,753 | 757,496 |
2020-11-14 | 5,890,220 | 4,569,016 | 8,869,502 | 834,740 |
2020-11-21 | 5,213,781 | 4,532,876 | 8,555,763 | 741,078 |
2020-11-28 | 5,766,130 | 4,801,408 | 9,244,556 | 834,685 |
2020-12-05 | 5,457,941 | 4,793,230 | 9,271,112 | 841,463 |
2020-12-12 | 5,393,839 | 4,810,334 | 8,453,940 | 937,972 |
2020-12-19 | 5,205,841 | 4,491,413 | 8,383,387 | 1,070,810 |
2020-12-26 | 5,347,440 | 4,166,261 | 7,442,888 | 1,450,438 |
2021-01-02 | 5,727,359 | 3,026,952 | 5,707,397 | 1,526,887 |
2021-01-09 | 5,446,993 | 3,863,008 | 7,334,682 | 1,638,247 |
2021-01-16 | 5,188,211 | 3,604,894 | 7,218,801 | 1,826,573 |
2021-01-23 | 5,156,985 | 4,779,341 | 7,943,448 | 1,785,954 |
2021-01-30 | 5,003,178 | 4,062,189 | 7,685,857 | 1,590,360 |
2021-02-06 | 4,934,288 | 5,067,523 | 7,520,114 | 1,523,394 |
2021-02-13 | 4,794,140 | 4,466,916 | 7,328,311 | 1,437,170 |
Click here for notes.
Data are not seasonally adjusted. A full list of programs can be found in the bottom panel of the table on page 4 at this link: https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf.
Source: U.S. Employment and Training Administration, Initial Claims [ICSA], retrieved from Department of Labor (DOL), https://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/persons.xls and https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf, March 4, 2021.
Figure A shows continuing claims in all programs over time (the latest data for this are for February 13). Continuing claims are currently nearly 16 million above where they were a year ago.
The Senate is poised to pass a crucial $1.9 trillion relief plan, which is the level of relief and recovery spending that the economy needs. One big problem with the plan, however, is that its unemployment insurance provisions are currently set to expire on August 29 (other provisions in the plan expire on September 30). The UI provisions must be extended to at least October 3, so that aid to the unemployed doesn’t lapse while Congress is on its August recess.
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