Washington, D.C. — Over 20 million Americans are collecting unemployment benefits, according to a Labor Department report released Thursday.
- State Unemployment: 5.1 million
- Pandemic Unemployment Assistance: 8.7 million
- Pandemic Emergency Program: 4.8 million
- Extended Benefits Program: 1.6 million
Pandemic Unemployment Assistance is available to self-employed workers.
There were 793,000 initial claims filed the week ending Feb. 6. Ohio, California, and New York led the country in initial unemployment claims. California alone accounted for nearly 133,000 claims.
U.S. unemployment woes appear to be far from over. Considering last week’s initial claims were revised up by 33,000 to 812,000, the future looks bleak.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell made that very clear, claiming that the actual unemployment rate is probably much higher than reported. He said it could be as high as 10 percent, despite the reported rate sitting at 6.4 percent.
Powell said it would take a “society-wide commitment” to fix the U.S. job market.
Multiple state governments (mostly Democrat-controlled) stand in the way of that society-wide solution. Many state and local governments continue to enforce strict guidelines that hurt businesses and eliminate jobs. Occupancy limits of 50 percent, and as low as 25 percent, are keeping restaurants closed across the country.
These businesses cannot afford to operate at such a low capacity and therefore, must remain closed. This is leading to a majority of, unemployment claims coming from the food and service industry.
If the U.S. is to recover, these (mostly Democrat-controlled) state and local government dictators need to step aside and let the American people reclaim their livelihoods.
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