Unemployment filings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020-2021

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# Unemployment filings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020-2022

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Ballotpedia’s coverage of COVID-19 includes how federal, state, and local governments are responding, and how those responses are influencing election rules and operations, political campaigns, the economy, schools, and more.

These pages are updated twice a week on Tuesday and Thursday, but our email is always open. We encourage you to share updates from local officials, policymakers, and campaigns in your community at editor@ballotpedia.org.

On March 19, 2020, California became the first state in the country to issue a stay-at-home order closing nonessential businesses and requiring people to stay home. Other states soon implemented their own stay-at-home orders or restrictions on businesses.

This page details weekly unemployment insurance claims as reported to the U.S. Department of Labor by each state since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States.[1][2][3]

In this article you will find:

* An overview of the data and how it is collected
* Nationwide claims
* Claims by state
* Technical notes
* Information on how the CARES Act affected unemployment insurance

## Contents

* 1 Weekly initial unemployment claims
* 1.1 State claims nationwide
* 1.2 Initial claims by state
* 1.3 Technical notes
* 1.4 Unemployment insurance and the CARES Act
* 2 General resources
* 3 See also
* 4 Footnotes

## Weekly initial unemployment claims

Every Thursday at 8:30a.m. (Eastern), the U.S. Department of Labor publishes the number of unemployment claims filed in all 50 states during the preceding week (Sunday through Saturday). The data is reported to the Department of Labor by the agency in each state responsible for overseeing that state's unemployment insurance program.

The Department of Labor reports two sets of data used on this page: initial unemployment claims and advance state claims. The data below are the initial claims. When an individual files an initial claim, the state unemployment insurance office determines if he or she is eligible to receive benefits. Although an initial claim does not guarantee that the person who filed the claim will receive unemployment, the Department of Labor states that "since the vast majority of weeks claimed are compensated, this measures [sic] serves as a weekly census of the population of people in the UI system."[4]

Eligibility requirements for receiving unemployment insurance vary by state. Generally, employees are considered eligible for unemployment if they were laid off because there was not enough work or the employer closed. Employees are generally considered ineligible if they were fired for misconduct.[5]

The advance state claims are an estimate provided by each state of the preceding week's unemployment filings. Although they are estimates, the advance state claims numbers get widely reported in the press as an indicator of where the labor market is headed. The advance state claims numbers get revised and re-released in the following week's report, becoming the initial claims numbers. The initial claims are the official unemployment filing numbers.[6][7]

Click here to see a chart of national advance state claims numbers. Click here to see the weekly official numbers broken down by state.

### State claims nationwide

The following graph from the St. Louis Federal Reserve shows initial unemployment filings as reported by the Department of Labor every Thursday. The data in this graph reflect the advance state claims reported by each state for the preceding week. Those numbers get revised and re-released the following week. Scroll down or click here to see the revised numbers broken down by state.

Hover over the graph to see the number of claims on each date, or change which years the graph displays by selecting and moving the sliders at the bottom.

### Initial claims by state

Each state reports its initial unemployment filings on a weekly basis to the Department of Labor. The most recent date column shows advance state claims. Numbers in this column get revised the following week.

Data is updated every Thursday. Scroll to the right to see latest data.

### Technical notes

The unemployment claims numbers on this page reflect the raw data gathered by state agencies, and are not seasonably adjusted. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that attempts to measure and remove the influences of predictable seasonal patterns to reveal how employment and unemployment change from month to month."[8]

The U.S. Department of Labor offers this definition of an initial claim:

"An initial claim is a claim filed by an unemployed individual after a separation from an employer. The claimant requests a determination of basic eligibility for the UI program. When an initial claim is filed with a state, certain programmatic activities take place and these result in activity counts including the count of initial claims. The count of U.S. initial claims for unemployment insurance is a leading economic indicator because it is an indication of emerging labor market conditions in the country. However, these are weekly administrative data which are difficult to seasonally adjust, making the series subject to some volatility."[9]

### Unemployment insurance and the CARES Act

See also: Federal government responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020-2021

On March 27, 2020, the U.S. House passed the CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security) Act to provide financial relief to individuals and businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.[10] President Donald Trump (R) signed the legislation on March 27.[11]

Among the provisions in the Act, Congress earmarked roughly $260 billion to expand unemployment insurance across the country.[12] The Act supplemented state unemployment insurance payments by providing individuals with an additional $600 per week on top of what they would normally receive, and increased the number of weeks an individual can receive benefits.[13]

## General resources

The chart below shows coronavirus statistics from countries across the world. The information is provided by Real Clear Politics.

Click the links below to explore official resources related to the coronavirus outbreak.

* Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
* National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
* Occupational Safety and Health Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
* U.S. Department of Education
* World Health Organization
* Trends in Number of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US Reported to CDC, by State/Territory
* Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vaccinations, Our World in Data (Number of vaccines administered)
* Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker, New York Times (Progress of vaccine trials)

## See also

* Documenting America's Path to Recovery
* COVID-19 vaccine distribution
* Coronavirus (COVID-19) travel restrictions
* Officeholders and candidates diagnosed with, dead from, or quarantined because of coronavirus
* Federal government responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
* School responses to the coronavirus (COVID-19 pandemic
* Recalls related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) and government responses to the pandemic

## Footnotes

1. ↑ Marketplace, "A record 3.3 million Americans have filed unemployment claims. What does that look like?" March 26, 2020
2. ↑ The Salt Lake Tribune, "Utah’s unemployment sets a new record as the coronavirus crisis impacts workers nationwide," April 2, 2020
3. ↑ WGBH, "New Unemployment Claims Set Second Straight Weekly Record In Mass.," April 2, 2020
4. ↑ United States Department of Labor, "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)," accessed April 22, 2020
5. ↑ Nolo, "Collecting Unemployment Benefits," accessed April 22, 2020
6. ↑ Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and Aaron Sojourner, "Predicting Initial Unemployment Insurance Claims Using Google Trends," accessed May 1, 2020
7. ↑ Economic Policy Institute, "Early state unemployment insurance data foreshadow the massive shock the coronavirus is having on state labor markets," March 27, 2020
8. ↑ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, "What is seasonal adjustment?" accessed April 15, 2020
9. ↑ U.S. Department of Labor, "Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims News Release," accessed April 15, 2020
10. ↑ The Hill, "House passes $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, with Trump to sign quickly," March 27, 2020
11. ↑ The Hill, "Trump signs $2T coronavirus relief package," March 27, 2020
12. ↑ NPR, "What's Inside The Senate's $2 Trillion Coronavirus Aid Package," March 26, 2020
13. ↑ The National Law Review, "CARES Act Expands Unemployment Insurance Benefits," April 5, 2020

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