Labor Department continuing unemployment claims for the week ending January 9, 2021

Source:

https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20210141.pdf

 

 

Continuing   Unemployment   Claims:

                   Week ending Jan. 9          Week ending Jan 2

State               5,446,086               5,727, 359                      

Federal          12,836,004             10,261,236 

Total              18,282,090              15,988,595   

Federal unemployment compensation for the self employed (AKA independent contractors , gig workers) -- new in 2020 -- has become very volatile. 

 

 

These are payments for self-employed people with no work, ignored by the traditional state unemployment programs, and self-employed people with sharply reduced works hours.

 

 

There are reduced payments for people with lost works hours, rather than no work at all. These rules make the compensation susceptible to fraud, by under reporting actual work hours. Or just completely fake claims. 

 

The temptation to commit fraud was particularly high through July 2020, when there was the possibility of up to a +$600 per week bonus. 

 

 

When that bonus ended, the payments became small with no work hours, and reduced even more when the self-employed person had some work, but fewer than full time work. The fraud, and suspected fraud, especially in the state of California, did not seem to slow down with the sharply reduced payments after July 2020.  

 

 

The following article explains the fraud, and suspected fraud, in California:

https://wolfstreet.com/2021/01/26/california-discloses-ballooning-unemployment-fraud-under-federal-pua-program-pua-fraud-is-a-national-problem/