Steve Simpson thought he was getting ahead of the curve by filing for unemployment insurance right after losing his job in March.
Almost a month later, he’s still stuck in bureaucratic limbo, along with millions of increasingly frustrated Americans. They’re the self-employed entrepreneurs, contractors and gig workers who make up a big chunk of the 21st-century economy.
New data on Thursday showed more than 5 million people filed unemployment claims last week, taking the total over the past month to 22 million. That means the coronavirus has wiped out a whole decade of job gains at an unprecedented pace, in what’s likely the worst rout for the U.S. economy since the Great Depression.
