Unemployment Claims -- Week #2 - Strike #2

6.648 million people 

filed their initial 

unemployment 

claims in the week 

ending on  

March 28, 2020,

about ten times 

the prior record 

set in 1982, 

according to the 

U.S. Department 

of Labor.

An upwardly revised 

3.307 million filed 

the week before. 

Combined, that's

almost 10 million 

unemployment 

claims processed 

in two weeks.

Even with 

many state

unemployment

offices behind 

in processing 

the claims.

The table below shows 

initial unemployment 

claims for the 10 states 

with the most claims 

in the past two weeks,

 combined 

( not seasonally adjusted ):

                                 Past 2 Weeks 

Top 10 States       of Initial Claims  

1      California    1,065,060

2 Pennsylvania     783,331

3                 Ohio    468,438

4        New York     446,402

5        Michigan     439,092

6             Texas     431,023

7 Massachusetts 329,514

8   New Jersey     321,330

9    Washington    317,410

10           Florida    301,313

Florida finally joined 

the 34 states with 

some type of statewide 

stay-at-home orders,

( orders cover 225 million people, 

over two-thirds of the U.S. ).

The $2 trillion 

stimulus package 

eased rules on 

who can qualify 

for unemployment 

insurance.

More people 

will qualify,

including 

part-timers, 

free-lancers, 

and 

gig workers

who have 

lost income 

( such as Uber 

drivers with 

no business ).

This expansion

of unemployment 

Insurance does need

to be implemented 

by individual states.

"Gig work" 

has become 

very popular, 

so that even 

big companies, 

such as Uber 

and Lyft, use it.

The self-employed, 

the free-lancers and 

entrepreneurs 

also include well-paid 

tech workers, and 

other professionals 

who work on a contract 

basis, on various projects. 

Some of them will qualify,

under new unemployment 

insurance rules, to receive 

unemployment benefits, 

and others won't.