A Visual Guide to Unemployment Benefit Claims

According to Thursday’s data release, another 1,457,373 people filed initial regular unemployment benefit claims during the week ending June 20, the eleventh week of a decline in the rate of new claims, but still among the highest levels in U.S. history. (New claims peaked at 6,211,399 for the week ending April 4.) The total number of new and continued claims now stands at 19,378,655, slightly lower than the 19,885,932, in the system last week but a marked decline from the peak of 24,975,778 four weeks ago.

The Department of Labor is now reporting Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims as well, which are claims made by certain self-employed individuals, including subcontractors and gig economy workers, who have lost work due to the crisis and would not normally be eligible for unemployment compensation. The new data show that 11,774,521 people have applied for or are already receiving pandemic unemployment assistance. Counting federal employees, workshare, and other smaller unemployment compensation categories, this brings the total number of Americans receiving benefits to nearly 33 million, but this is almost certainly an underestimate, as PUA claims data remain incomplete.

Prior to the current crisis, the highest one-week unemployment claims as a percentage of everyone in the unemployment insurance system (those currently in “covered” employment plus those claiming benefits) was 1.36 percent, in January 1975. During the Great Recession, the one-week peak was 0.68 percent in January 2009. The peak during the current crisis, reached the week ending April 4, was 3.89 percent.

Approximately 11.7 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force has now applied for or is receiving unemployment compensation benefits (through June 6, the latest data). Counting pandemic claims, over 18.9 percent of the U.S. workforce has applied for or is receiving benefits, and this number is almost certainly too low, as federal data on pandemic claims still omits some states entirely. The previous high was 7.9 percent early in 1975 during a recessionA recession is a significant and sustained decline in the economy. Typically, a recession lasts longer than six months, but recovery from a recession can take a few years. , with a Great Recession peak of 4.8 percent between February and April 2009. Entering March 2020, unemployment claims as a percentage of the civilian labor force stood at 1.4 percent.

The map below only includes regular unemployment claims since reporting of pandemic claims is still too inconsistent to allow comparisons.

Unfortunately, many states entered the crisis with woefully inadequate unemployment compensation trust funds.

According to the Treasury Department, eleven states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia—have already been approved for federal loans (called Title XII Advances) in anticipation of the exhaustion of their trust funds, with five (California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Texas) already using those advances to pay out benefit claims. States must repay these advances (with interest starting in 2021), and if they still have outstanding balances after two years, in-state businesses will face higher federal unemployment insurance taxes to compensate for the state being in arrears.

At the same time, however, under guidance from the Treasury Department, some states have begun using funding from the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) under the CARES Act to cover unemployment benefit claims arising from the pandemic. States recently deposited their first-quarter unemployment insurance (UI) taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. revenues, moreover, providing a substantial infusion of revenue into their funds.

The revenue boost will not last. The way most states structure their UI taxes, most of the revenue is collected for wages paid in the first quarter of the year, making the recent revenue boosts an annual, not a regular, adjustment. Using the CRF to cover weekly payments, however, is a significant lifeline for states, where declines in weeks of reserves have slowed even as more claims enter the system and can in fact be expected to level off for a while.

States are now processing and paying out claims from self-employed filers (normally ineligible for unemployment compensation) under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program as well. These claims are fully federally funded and do not impact states’ trust funds.

Mandatory business closures and shelter-in-place orders have radically accelerated job losses compared to the steadier pace of layoffs in prior recessions, meaning these claims likely represent a far greater share of the ultimate total than did any week’s claims during the Great Recession. But the numbers are still staggering, with every likelihood of sobering numbers in coming weeks as well.

Our interactive tool allows you to see how the most recent week’s initial unemployment compensation claims in each state compare to average and peak weekly claims during the Great Recession. Many states are woefully unprepared for the magnitude of the challenge ahead. Entering the crisis, 21 states’ unemployment compensation trust funds were below the minimum recommended solvency level to weather a recession. Six states had less than half the minimum recommended amount, representing 37 percent of the U.S. population.

As more firms lay off employees and unemployment increases, states’ unemployment insurance taxes will rise on businesses that can least afford to pay. As states receive federal assistance to aid with unemployment benefits, it may be appropriate to provide some measure of relief to businesses as well, particularly to the extent that their layoffs were precipitated by business closure orders.

Explore your state’s data on our interactive tool below.

Table 1. Weekly Unemployment Claims During the Great Recession and 2020 Coronavirus

State	Great Recession, Average Weekly Claims	Great Recession, Peak Weekly Claims	1-Week Initial Claims (ending 6/20)	% Change From Following Week
U.S. Total	482,266	956,791	1,457,373	-0.41%
Alabama	6,679	20,894	18,061	-1.67%
Alaska	1,730	4,160	7,050	3.72%
Arizona	5,922	11,178	26,786	19.48%
Arkansas	5,077	10,489	9,135	-2.62%
California	58,695	95,705	287,354	19.02%
Colorado	3,525	7,284	9,757	-6.02%
Connecticut	5,102	13,023	10,362	-12.57%
Delaware	1,235	3,051	2,701	7.35%
District of Columbia	426	1,287	3,004	-1.99%
Florida	17,967	40,403	93,394	5.95%
Georgia	14,156	41,522	124,283	-5.84%
Hawaii	1,793	3,211	7,238	-0.14%
Idaho	2,749	7,303	4,053	11.62%
Illinois	17,760	34,524	46,005	2.93%
Indiana	10,891	28,616	31,885	32.76%
Iowa	5,293	13,865	8,542	-5.81%
Kansas	3,913	18,064	9,964	20.24%
Kentucky	7,974	25,057	24,628	-34.59%
Louisiana	3,783	28,080	20,196	-12.65%
Maine	1,678	5,634	2,835	-5.91%
Maryland	5,775	12,031	31,944	36.22%
Massachusetts	8,881	22,028	29,671	-2.43%
Michigan	22,013	76,702	18,783	-11.79%
Minnesota	6,720	15,195	20,584	-16.65%
Mississippi	3,477	9,420	15,140	-17.75%
Missouri	9,227	21,413	15,968	-15.57%
Montana	1,433	3,837	2,845	-9.88%
Nebraska	1,637	3,780	4,441	-8.77%
Nevada	4,765	8,945	13,760	29.57%
New Hampshire	1,413	3,594	5,276	-17.96%
New Jersey	12,255	24,095	32,396	22.54%
New Mexico	1,478	3,308	5,083	-0.55%
New York	24,033	54,805	90,186	-5.22%
North Carolina	17,175	56,647	28,463	-11.57%
North Dakota	610	2,332	2,002	-3.42%
Ohio	16,945	40,829	34,375	3.73%
Oklahoma	2,867	6,196	49,208	-41.96%
Oregon	9,316	20,916	15,737	-36.15%
Pennsylvania	28,262	59,669	56,089	14.01%
Puerto Rico	3,519	7,267	9,043	11.68%
Rhode Island	1,855	3,987	3,465	31.20%
South Carolina	7,730	22,548	17,098	-13.88%
South Dakota	463	1,382	857	-19.53%
Tennessee	8,398	30,753	21,155	8.97%
Texas	18,092	49,398	89,241	-5.79%
Utah	2,112	5,205	4,961	3.29%
Vermont	1,016	2,860	1,311	-29.48%
Virgin Islands	65	235	27	-49.06%
Virginia	7,098	21,862	26,072	-4.10%
Washington	11,091	26,075	34,809	15.20%
West Virginia	1,747	4,368	3,601	-16.78%
Wisconsin	16,025	35,885	25,417	-0.49%
Wyoming	565	1,483	1,132	-26.45%
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Table 2. Initial and Continuing Regular Unemployment Compensation Claims as a Percentage of the Civilian Labor Force

U.S. Total	11.7%
Alabama	7.2%
Alaska	15.0%
Arizona	6.5%
Arkansas	8.6%
California	15.9%
Colorado	8.4%
Connecticut	13.7%
Delaware	10.9%
District of Columbia	17.7%
Florida	10.1%
Georgia	15.2%
Hawaii	21.0%
Idaho	4.0%
Illinois	11.9%
Indiana	7.0%
Iowa	9.4%
Kansas	6.9%
Kentucky	9.5%
Louisiana	15.1%
Maine	9.5%
Maryland	8.3%
Massachusetts	15.5%
Michigan	12.4%
Minnesota	12.6%
Mississippi	13.1%
Missouri	7.3%
Montana	8.3%
Nebraska	5.8%
Nevada	19.1%
New Hampshire	12.5%
New Jersey	12.2%
New Mexico	11.3%
New York	18.3%
North Carolina	10.8%
North Dakota	8.9%
Ohio	8.2%
Oklahoma	12.4%
Oregon	19.1%
Pennsylvania	12.4%
Puerto Rico	19.6%
Rhode Island	13.1%
South Carolina	8.9%
South Dakota	3.9%
Tennessee	8.9%
Texas	9.4%
Utah	4.8%
Vermont	12.9%
Virgin Islands
Virginia	9.0%
Washington	12.2%
West Virginia	9.9%
Wisconsin	8.1%
Wyoming	5.9%
Source: U.S. Department of Labor; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Tax Foundation calculations.
Note: Excludes Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Claims, which are fully paid by the federal government, because federal reporting still omits many states.

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