Millions in U.S. Are On Edge, Waiting for Jobless Benefits
- Overloaded state unemployment systems create payment delays
- Problems point to holes in unprecedented fiscal response
Employees hand out printed unemployment applications to people in Hialeah, Florida on April 8.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Millions of Americans who are owed tens of billions of dollars in unemployment benefits are still waiting to receive the help they have been promised two months after the Covid-19 pandemic unleashed a historic wave of layoffs.
Even as job losses continue to mount, states that have ramped up staffing and deployed new computer systems are struggling to handle a surge that has seen 36.5 million people -- about one in five American workers -- file for unemployment since mid-March.
The result is that a key element of the U.S.’s unprecedented fiscal response is running into problems that highlight the difficulty of getting money to people who need it to weather the crisis. The delayed payments also help explain why frustration is growing with state lockdowns and clashing with fresh warnings from public health officials that a pandemic that has claimed more than 85,000 lives in the U.S. remains a major risk.