Posted on 03/21/2020 12:02:18 PM PDT by aimhigh
The following gives the number of new unemployment insurance claims filed in most states this week. The numbers were compiled from dozens of news sources. The numbers reflect new applications, not processed applications. Some states are short staffed, so not all of these numbers will appear in next Thursday's official numbers.
Alabama - The unemployment website crashed on Friday. 6,062 people filed unemployment claims the first three days of this week. 7,821 were filed for the week. This exceeds the number filed in the three previous weeks combined.
Alaska - Unemployment filings increased six fold from the week before. Last week, people filed 687 new claims.. In the first five days of this week there were 4,046 new claims.
California - 58,208 unemployment applications were filed in the first four days of last week.
Canada - Canada received 500,000 applications for unemployment benefits, versus 27,000 for the same week last year.
Colorado - Online Claim applications approached 25,000 this week, up 1400+% compared to last week. Calls to the state's unemployment office jumped from 9,900 last week to 99,000 this week and total visits to the office's unemployment online application jumped from 7,000 last week to 114,000 this week.
Florida - . The department received more than 130,000 calls — nearly five times more than the entire previous week. The online system has been crashing for many applicants. Telephone wait times are up to 2.5 hours.
Georgia - Applications for unemployment benefits soared 400% this week, enough to overload their website. The webpage to file for unemployment was inaccessible most of Wednesday. The state wouldn’t release exact figures yet, but applying the percentage given to earlier weeks calculates to more than 27,000 applications. Most states pay 26 weeks of benefits. Georgia reduced their benefits to 14 weeks last year.
Illinois - From Monday to Wednesday, 64,000 unemployment claims were filed, compared 6,074 in the same three days last year.
Indiana - 22,583 unemployment applications were filed during the first three days of the week. 3,000 was average a year ago.
Iowa - Beth Townsend, director of Iowa Workforce Development, said the daily number of unemployment claims being filed is similar to what the agency would receive in a busy month. "We are seeing an unprecedented number of claims," Townsend said. "It's pretty staggering to see the number of claims we're receiving." Starting Monday the agency will shift 162 employees from other duties to help take calls, Townsend said.
Kansas - 11,355 applications were filed this week, up 524% from the 1,820 it received last week.
Louisiana - More than 47,000 new claims for unemployment were filed this week, up from 1,500 average. Their website crashed on Thursday. Call wait times are two hours.
Maryland - Unemployment claims spiked five-fold in one day to 5,000 on Monday. That caused their website to shut down.
Massachusetts - On Monday alone, 19,884 unemployment claims were filed with the state.
Michigan - Claims were up 550%. 55,000 unemployment claims were filed between Monday and Wednesday this week, a 1,500% increase over normal.
Minnesota - 95,000 applications for unemployment benefits were filed this week. As of Thursday, the state logged 95,352 applications for unemployment benefits. More than 23,000 applications poured in on Thursday alone. About 500 new unemployment filings in a day used to be normal for this time of year.
Nevada - The number of initial claims filed in the week of March 14 is the largest week-over-week increase since at least 1987, when the current system of recordkeeping began. 6,356 initial claims were filed, which is nearly triple the 2,309 initial claims for the week ending March 7.
New Mexico - 1,000 New Mexicans have filed initial unemployment claims in the past week, more than any week during the Great Recession. Average is 800 a week.
New York - unemployment Claims increased more than 1,000% in some areas. The volume has increased as the state waives the seven-day waiting period to receive benefits. The unemployment office received 475,000 calls on Friday alone, Cohen said.
North Carolina - 42,000 new unemployment claims from Monday through Thursday. The average week brings in 3,000. Typically, their website gets 6,000 visitors in a day. Thursday, it got 68,500 visitors.
Ohio - 139,468 unemployment applications were filed online in the past four days. This exceeds the 4,815 filed last year in the same week.
Oregon - Unemployment claims in Oregon increased by nearly 3,200 percent on March 17, 2020, amid layoffs triggered by the impact of COVID-19. 53,000 applications were filed last week.
Pennsylvania - More than 174,000 new claims were filed from Monday through Wednesday, the only three days reported. This set a new record, the state said.
South Carolina - Unemployment claims are up 400%. All claims are handled online, but the system got flooded, which triggered people calling the agency. The department received 4,000 calls Wednesday alone. Another 3,000 calls came in on Thursday.
Tennessee - Unemployment claims tripled in the state last week compared to the week before. Between March 8 and 14, the TDLWD Unemployment Security Division received 6,092 new unemployment claims. In comparison, from March 1 through March 7, 2,031 new claims were processed.
Texas - Sunday and Wednesday, Texas received more than 61,500 first-time unemployment insurance claims, more than four times the filings during a similar period in 2019.
Utah - unemployment applications increased 29%.
Virginia - unemployment claims spiked to ~14,000 residents Monday through Wednesday. On Thursday, more than 16,000 people applied. Last week, just 323 people applied.
Washington - Washington State Employee Security Department said its website had more than 500,000 users last Monday and Tuesday. Past averages were 30,000 users during that time.
West Virginia - As of Tuesday, WV received more than 7,000 applications. Normally they see 5,000 applications each month. Their website was overloaded.
This is more than likely temporary so no need to sound the alarm on this issue either, at least not yet that is. In fact the unnecessary panic that ensued from the Chinese virus, has been the cause of this issue. Without the panic this wouldn't even be an issue.
Do I think the draconian measures being taken are necessary, yes. But only because widespread panic had taken over and was affecting the stock markets disproportionately. Therefore, the damage had been done and these measures may just create a calming affect soon rather than later.
No kidding.
I agree with most of your post. But the government's intent is to flatten the curve, which means these layoffs could last 3 to 4 months.
My daughter was 1 of the Alabama ones. Physical therapy assistant. Just talked to my manager. He said they won’t need me until this blows over. I’m a greeter at restaurant and in bama we are take out only right now...sigh
plenty of ‘Walmart Greeter’ positions are opening up
“Welcome to Wal-Mart, get your s__t and get out!”
LOL
Wherever there is UAW auto plant or supplies the numbers will go up as the UAW and the big three shuttered services, and factories. what a mess.
I know of entire businesses who laid off their staff, with apparent offers of intermittent employment of them in small groups.
Here’s the problem. The State unemployment insurance computer systems are saturated and people cannot file. It may take weeks or several months for everyone to be able to file. The States are highly incompetent as well, so they will have little to no ability to backdate filings to the day of layoff. People will be told they cannot claim the prior weeks of trying to file and will not be paid. Some UI clerks will help some people backdate their claims, but overall, most people are SOL. The States simply do not have the computing systems of staff to help everyone.
Backdating claims is a matter of state law, not competence. Claims are effective beginning the week the initial application is filed.
What if it takes you 3-5 weeks to get your initial application filed? How does a state like Ohio with fewer than 5k filings normally handle 140k filings all of a sudden?
In those cases, the agency should allow backdating.
“Backdating claims is a matter of state law, not competence. Claims are effective beginning the week the initial application is filed.”
They can backdate, so, no, it’s not just a matter of law.
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