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Millions locked out of U.S. unemployment system: survey
Reuters via Yahoo ^ | 4/28/20

Posted on 04/28/2020 4:03:47 PM PDT by Libloather

Millions of Americans who have been thrown out of work during the coronavirus pandemic have been unable to register for unemployment benefits since the U.S. economy entered a free fall, according to a poll released on Tuesday (April 28).

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found in an online poll that for every 10 people who have successfully filed unemployment claims, three or four people have been unable to register and another two people have not tried to apply at a time of acute economic crisis.

**SNIP**

EPI's survey indicates that an additional 8.9 million to 13.9 million people have been shut out of the system, said Ben Zipperer, the study's lead author.

Idled workers say they have encountered downed websites and clogged phone lines, as the state governments that administer the program have been overwhelmed by applicants. EPI surveyed 24,607 U.S. adult internet users using Google Surveys between April 13 and April 24. The poll has a confidence interval, an indicator of accuracy, of plus or minus 1%.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine; Society
KEYWORDS: millions; system; unemployment; us
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To: Libloather

I was locked out of unemployment communication in 2012. My unemployment ran out (and it wasn’t anywhere near Obama’s upper limits for some, maybe a few months). I persisted in calling to keep reporting that I was unemployed (even without a check, just for statistics) but I clearly wasn’t going to get through.

And this was by design. at 7:59a our hours are....”. a minute later the message would change (from 8:00-5:00PM) “ALL LINES ARE BUSY. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER OR ONLINE.” Except the online system required me to call in since I had “run out”.


21 posted on 04/28/2020 5:09:44 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The fish wrap media promoted Obama's Benghazi lies in 2012)
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To: Robert357

>>When I see large restaurant chains, NBA teams have gotten small business loans I just shake my head. That is not who the money was meant for as a safety net.

Kennedy Center got $25,000,000 and then fired 190 people.


22 posted on 04/28/2020 5:10:27 PM PDT by a fool in paradise (The fish wrap media promoted Obama's Benghazi lies in 2012)
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To: Libloather

My wife in Maryland is one of them.

Get this: these idiots in Maryland decided to implement A BRAND NEW SYSTEM/WEBSITE to handle the load they knew was coming.

And guess what freaking happened? They blew it. What a bunch of freaking idiots.

I swear we need to follow the money on this one. Somebody’s relative got a sweetheart deal to implement this dog.

My wife tried to log into the system Sunday night. They implemented a “virtual line” because the system sucks so bad.

She was number 540,000. Yes, FIVE HUNDRED AND FORTY THOUSAND IN THE QUEUE JUST TO ACCESS THE FREAKING WEBSITE!

Does the state honestly think that will work?


23 posted on 04/28/2020 5:13:11 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (Screw journalists.)
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To: CharlesWayneCT
Nobody has an incentive to quit — if you quit, you just get regular unemployment.

In all 50 states, if you quit, you get no unemployment.

24 posted on 04/28/2020 5:17:14 PM PDT by Lazamataz (China got this virus right off the bat.)
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To: House Atreides

Our private church school got one of the loans. Kept a lot of people getting paychecks.

Bit nervous taking it, but a lot of the aides and such were looking at zero income otherwise.


25 posted on 04/28/2020 5:25:56 PM PDT by redgolum (If this culture today is civilization, I will be the barbarian)
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To: Lurkina.n.Learnin

It’s absolutely sickening that states hired H1B trash to upgrade their systems. At least in Colorado. How do I know, some garbage desi recruiter called me for an immediate opening.

The phone screen was over once I said I was an American citizen and I will NOT be providing my SSN or Drivers License scan.


26 posted on 04/28/2020 5:44:09 PM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the parish country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: VeniVidiVici

Worthless filthy Indian H1B clowns strike again.


27 posted on 04/28/2020 5:45:49 PM PDT by Starcitizen (Communist China needs to be treated like the parish country it is. Send it back to 1971)
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To: dsc

Here is something strange...my son applied for unemployment for his second job (1099 worker). He was still employed by his first job full time but was meeting remainder of his bills with his second job. They asked for work history and he put his first job and stated several places he is not filing for unemployment with main job.

He hoped he would qualify for the pandemic insurance since he was a 1099 worker. He gets back paperwork this past week saying he qualified for REGULAR unemployment and based it on Lowes (a part time job he had left almost 7 months ago) and which he never even mentioned on the unemployment app. He tried contacting them every day since but just keeps getting hung up on so he has no idea what to do...just received his first check and it includes the regular unemployment and the $600.


28 posted on 04/28/2020 5:53:24 PM PDT by terart
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To: a fool in paradise

The company I worked for applied for (and most likely received) loans but were already outsourcing the work and losing business before the outbreak. It’s been more than a month here with zero income. The state monetarily denied state benefits (1099 contractor), then locked me out of applying after three weeks. Several calls later “oh we’re making a new system for PUA”....nowhere did it say that on their literature or website, in their “townhall”, or from any official source.

I generally spend several hours per week on hold just for the state to give a new excuse and those who answer can only give scripted responses. “Oh, we’re overwhelmed”, “system not set up”, “funds not approved” while they fiddle with a new logo and website. “Oh, we can put in a ticket for that to be pushed to a TEIR 2 agent”. It has been three weeks and no contact from anyone. The governor must have been feeling some heat since he announced last week that PUA should start moving this week. Thus far no changes or reports of such action has been posted on the “new” half-ass UE website.

Governor said the state peaked on March 30th but didn’t start allowing some businesses to reopen until last Friday and the rest to open May 1st. Meanwhile, the DUmocrat-run towns want to extend the lockdown while imposing draconian mandates such as mandatory masks in public with police eagerly enforcing unconstitutional acts by their city mayors.


29 posted on 04/28/2020 6:00:36 PM PDT by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Libloather

Why does Reuters headline say that millions are locked out of US unemployment system? True, the people are in the USA, but the unemployment signup software is in the individual states. POTUS did not want it to be this way, but the Dems insisted.


30 posted on 04/28/2020 6:08:32 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: All

Now the REAL reason the state has been dragging their feet on implementing PUA....

As state reopens, Oklahoma workforce leaders discuss asking for end to federal unemployment payments

https://www.readfrontier.org/stories/as-state-reopens-oklahoma-workforce-leaders-discuss-asking-for-end-to-federal-unemployment-payments/?fbclid=IwAR2Bu7S6sgv4eYV4guk-DOtCYoXVsxR_XLhQvdEEtrvfjEIeXIGrJG2Dklg


31 posted on 04/28/2020 6:12:24 PM PDT by RasterMaster ("Towering genius disdains a beaten path." - Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Libloather

Do a google news search on ‘unemployment backlog’ and there are scores of articles on backlogs in most states. One article compared the unemployment backlog to a gas station. It said, ‘Imagine a gas station that can handle a hundred cars an hour. Then imagine 7000 cars show up expecting to be filled in that same hour.’


32 posted on 04/28/2020 7:32:43 PM PDT by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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To: terart
and stated several places he is not filing for unemployment with main job.

No state allows you to choose what employer you file against. Claims are based on total earnings and against any employer you worked for in the last 52 weeks or in the first four of the last five completed quarters (depending on the state). When claiming each week, he must report his gross earnings from any employer he's still working for.

33 posted on 04/28/2020 7:43:29 PM PDT by aimhigh (THIS is His commandment . . . . 1 John 3:23)
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To: aimhigh

then I guess I don’t understand and he doesn’t either...he called and finally got hold of someone and they don’t understand the amount approved and couldn’t help him and he has been reporting zero earnings because he only reported the job he lost and he thought that was the income he had to report on...so dang confused and no one in our family has ever reported for unemployment and you can’t get someone on the phone and when you do they don’t help :(

He was told he could claim unemployment for his 1099 and get PUA only (not state unemployment). He was super clear about his employment status. He tries to do it all correctly including calling the employment department and now it still sounds like he has done it wrong but there is no one to talk to in order to fix it.


34 posted on 04/28/2020 8:10:57 PM PDT by terart
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To: JoSixChip

We are no longer slouching towards Gomorrah. We are there.


35 posted on 04/28/2020 8:21:45 PM PDT by DeplorableGirl
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To: terart

I’m never surprised to see bureaucrats acting stupidly.

After all, most of them are affirmative action hires who couldn’t have passed the third grade back when I went to school, but the color of their skin guarantees them a job.

I would advise your son to bank that money if he can, because if some other drooling idiot decides it shouldn’t have been paid, they’ll demand it back, and they won’t care a whit that it was their mistake.


36 posted on 04/28/2020 9:27:12 PM PDT by dsc (As for the foundations of the Catholic faith, this pontificate is an outrage to reason.)
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To: Lazamataz

Yhsnks fir 5he clarification. The scares act gives you the right to quit if you fear you might get sick at work, but only if you doctor certifies that you have co-morbities that make youva special risk. I had thought it was for any reason.


37 posted on 04/28/2020 10:21:19 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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