The rise in weekly jobless claims to 1.4 million underscores the outsize role the unemployment insurance system is playing among the nation’s safety net programs — just when a US$600 weekly federal aid payment for the jobless is set to expire at the end of this week. An additional 975,000 applied for jobless aid under a separate program that has made self-employed and gig workers eligible for the first time. Members of Congress are negotiating another aid package that might extend the $600 benefit, though likely at a lower level. The federal jobless aid has also helped buttress the overall economy. Unemployment aid accounted for 6% of all U.S. income in May, a greater share than even Social Security.

Source: The Standard July 23, 2020 13:37 UTC