Number of Americans Relying on Unemployment Insurance Rising
The number of people seeking unemployment assistance was up, again, last week.

On March 19th, the downtown Milwaukee Punch Bowl Social laid off 91 employees. Photo by Jennifer Rick.
Total new claims for unemployment assistance were up again this week, as were the number of people currently relying on some type of assistance.
A total of 881,000 people filed new unemployment claims last week, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. But 759,482 people filed for pandemic unemployment assistance. So there were a total of 1.6 million claims for unemployment last week. In the last seven days since Urban Milwaukee reported on unemployment, Wisconsin has had 13,000 new unemployment claims.
As of August 15th, there were 29.2 million people across the country relying on some type of unemployment assistance. This is more than two million people higher than the previous week. And it’s approximately 18-times more people than were relying on assistance at this time last year.
What we have instead is a long, drawn-out recovery, drawing out the pain of unemployment.
In March, Scott Adams, chair of the economics department at UW-Milwaukee, told Urban Milwaukee that it was likely that the national economy’s success would be highly correlated with the country’s success against the virus. He suggested putting money in people’s hands “without strings” so they can afford to hunker down and let public health professionals fight the virus. Only once the virus was beaten, could the economy truly begin to recover, Adams predicted.
The federal government has implemented some stop-gap measures to provide some relief for people during the ongoing unemployment crisis, as there is no end in sight to the virus in the U.S.
One recent move was a $300 boost to unemployment benefits for people receiving state unemployment insurance, it follows a prior $600 per week assistance benefit. This boost, however, will last only for three to four weeks. And on Thursday, the Trump administration announced a nationwide moratorium on evictions.
If you think stories like this are important, become a member of Urban Milwaukee and help support real, independent journalism. Plus you get some cool added benefits, all detailed here.
More about the Coronavirus Pandemic
- DHS Updates COVID-19 Illness After Vaccination Page to Include Data by Booster Dose Status - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 26th, 2022
- WI Health Department Urges Booster Shots for Ages 5 to 11 - Erik Gunn - May 24th, 2022
- DHS Recommends COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses to Everyone 5 and Older - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 23rd, 2022
- MKE County: COVID-19 Cases Rising Again - Graham Kilmer - May 20th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 20th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Mask Advisory - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 20th, 2022
- State’s COVID-19 Cases Up 66% in May - Erik Gunn - May 17th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 13th, 2022
- DHS Announces the Moving Forward Together Grant Program to Support Health Equity Efforts in COVID-19 Vaccinations - Wisconsin Department of Health Services - May 12th, 2022
- City of Milwaukee Weekly COVID-19 Update - City of Milwaukee Health Department - May 6th, 2022
Read more about Coronavirus Pandemic here