A Record 3.3 Million Americans Filed for Unemployment

Timeaisis · Mar 26, 2020

I mean...this is how we've decided to handle social safety net (not the best solution, but it's what we got right now), so it's on one hand it's good to see this giant spike, even though the number is incredibly scary, because it means people are taking advantage of it.

Anecdotally, I know people who have laid their workers off instead of furloughing them for the express purpose of allowing them to apply for unemployment with the intent to re-hire them when this is all over. It's a dumb solution, but it's a solution. Not trying to spin this as a good thing in any way, but just trying to downplay the shellshock. Everyone becoming unemployed at once is unprecedented...and we are using this system to allow workers to continue to make make ends meet in this weird uncertain time. I can only hope this plus the stimulus let's people get by...something tells me it won't, but it's a start, I guess.

TTG · Mar 26, 2020

Thanks Obama

Pai Pai Master · Mar 26, 2020

PMS341 said:
So just to put it into perspective...

- Over half of the people in the US with health insurance get it exclusively from their jobs.
- COVID-19 causes unemployment numbers to skyrocket into record numbers, mirroring the Great Depression.
- Millions upon millions of people are now without health insurance.
- COVID-19 testing and treatment without insurance is a spiraling debt pit, scaring many into not seeking healthcare even with possible symptoms out of fear of bankruptcy.

This is, without a doubt, one of the biggest examples of why Medicare For All should be an absolute requirement in the US.

Of course it is but it's just so fucking absurd that it took until this point for more people to understand.

You could replace COVID-19 with pretty much *any* health issue that masses of people face. But Republicans and moderate dems think "well, millions of people have (access to but can't necessarily afford) healthcare! Surely that's just good enough!"

We can only hope when this is over that those people preventing something like M4A are either out of office, have had their minds changed, or are dead.

Deleted member 4346 · Mar 26, 2020

We are headed for an honest-to-God depression. I wonder, though, recovery might not be so time-consuming since this is, at least in the short term, tied to the outbreak?

PMS341 said:
So just to put it into perspective...

- Over half of the people in the US with health insurance get it exclusively from their jobs.
- COVID-19 causes unemployment numbers to skyrocket into record numbers, mirroring the Great Depression.
- Millions upon millions of people are now without health insurance.
- COVID-19 testing and treatment without insurance is a spiraling debt pit, scaring many into not seeking healthcare even with possible symptoms out of fear of bankruptcy.

This is, without a doubt, one of the biggest examples of why Medicare For All should be an absolute requirement in the US.

I don't know, I was told that the COVID-19 panic response was a totally separate issue from M4A...

MasterChumly · Mar 26, 2020

TrueSloth said:
Remember all those jobs that were created over the past 4 years? Man, so many jobs were made. So many.

Remember the massive raises that happened with the corporate tax cut bill! Corporations sent all their savings to their employees!

Pai Pai Master · Mar 26, 2020

MasterChumly said:
Remember the massive raises that happened with the corporate tax cut bill! Corporations sent all their savings to their employees!

And the tax cuts are paying for themselves!!

PMS341 · Mar 26, 2020

Pai Pai Master said:
Of course it is but it's just so fucking absurd that it took until this point for more people to understand.

You could replace COVID-19 with pretty much *any* health issue that masses of people face. But Republicans and moderate dems think "well, millions of people have (access to but can't necessarily afford) healthcare! Surely that's just good enough!"

We can only hope when this is over that those people preventing something like M4A are either out of office, have had their minds changed, or are dead.

Oh I completely agree with you. My father's end of life treatment was cut short due to insurance premiums, and it drained him of everything he had before that. Medicare For All should be a no-brainer and something genuinely everyone should strive to want. Of course, you'll always get disingenuous claims of "It'll never pass!" from people who are perfectly fine with the current system (or a slightly altered one that still favors insurance companies over poor people), but it's a fight not worth giving an inch on, imo.

Apharmd said:
I don't know, I was told that the COVID-19 panic response was a totally separate issue from M4A...

"N-no one actually likes Medicare For All! It just isn't popular!" is a take I've seen too many times. As the above poster mentioned it's absolutely insane it took a worldwide pandemic for people to realize how terrible of an idea it is to link health insurance to employers, especially when a good amount of the workforce is about to lose said insurance when they would need it the most.

Half of Americans support Medicare for All amid the coronavirus pandemic, new poll finds

TheBaldwin · Mar 26, 2020

Pai Pai Master said:
And the tax cuts are paying for themselves!!

TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS

GOD BLESS 'MURICA !

Jmdajr · Mar 26, 2020

I am living in an epically fucked time period.

Secretofmateria · Mar 26, 2020

Everything is fucked, everything is fucked, i should just stop going to college because everything is fucked.

Thatonedice1 · Mar 26, 2020

Think I should apply.

Deleted member 31923 · Mar 26, 2020

Tobor said:
Trump is going to start blaming the states and governors. Especially NY and CA. He's been laying the groundwork all week.

He can try. But it looks like things are picking up pace in Florida (over 2 thousand cases), and things are bad in Louisiana and may get bad in Texas too. So if red states like Florida and Texas are forced to shut down, then his whole blame blue states crap is going to look dumb like the rest of his virus response.

smileyforall220 · Mar 26, 2020

I mean, thats what happens when you tell all businesses except essential ones to close for long periods of time. This shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone whatsoever.

Jmdajr · Mar 26, 2020

Secretofmateria said:
Everything is fucked, everything is fucked, i should just stop going to college because everything is fucked.

I think now is the time to focus on "essential" careers. Granted the front lines.....are tough.

cameron · Mar 26, 2020

Talking Points Memo @TPM

Mnuchin on jobless claims numbers: "I just think these numbers right now are not relevant, and you know, whether they're bigger or smaller in the short term."

10:25 AM - Mar 26, 2020

Greg Schultz @schultzohio

Reminder that 'these numbers' are actually 'people' who have bills to pay and families to support https://twitter.com/TPM/status/1243182175727517697 …

11:06 AM - Mar 26, 2020

Pai Pai Master · Mar 26, 2020

Thatonedice1 said:
Think I should apply.

Might as well. I'm gonna try but idk if I'm eligible

Instro · Mar 26, 2020

Xando said:
So I'm reading the actual number is higher but they couldn't actually process all claims on time in some states?

Probably

Jordan117 · Mar 26, 2020

Looks like Trump finally got his wall.

Schlorgan · Mar 26, 2020

Jordan117 said:
Looks like Trump finally got his wall.

Deleted member 5028 · Mar 26, 2020

Add 300 more to the list

What it feels like to be laid off on Zoom during this crisis

Hundreds of tech employees are getting laid off amid the coronavirus outbreak — but now it's all happening over Zoom.

www.protocol.com

On Tuesday morning, around 100 TripActions customer support and customer success team members dialed into a Zoom call. Many joined the call happily smiling, expecting another team meeting or bonding activity amid the new work from home culture. Instead, according to people on the call Protocol spoke with, their boss launched into a spiel about the economy and coronavirus.

Then she announced that everyone on the call was being laid off.

"People were crying and people were panicking," said one employee who was abruptly let go on the videoconference. "It was like 100 different videos of just chaos."

The workers on that call represent around one-third of the people TripActions laid off on Tuesday. The company confirmed it let go of nearly 300 workers, around a quarter of the total staff, with layoffs hitting customer support, recruiting and sales the hardest, according to several current and former employees Protocol spoke with. "While we were fortunate to have recently raised funding and secured debt financing, we are taking appropriate steps in our business to ensure we are here for our customers and their travelers long into the future," TripActions said in a statement. "We've cut back on all nonessential spend and made the very difficult decision to reduce our global workforce in line with the current climate."

Yeah, firing people is likely to happen during a pandemic but

TripActions employees Protocol spoke with felt blindsided as they joined the calls, despite the sector movement toward layoffs. The company had seemed flush, having previously raised around $480 million in venture capital from blue chip investors like Ben Horowitz at Andreessen Horowtiz and Lightspeed, according to PitchBook. In February, it also reportedly closed a $500 million debt facility to build out its corporate travel card, according to TechCrunch.

Unbelievable cruelty.

GaimeGuy · Mar 26, 2020

Fallout-NL said:
Except this is going to lead into a recession that was already coming or as I like to call it, 08 recession part 2 because nothing was done to address the root causes of what happened in 08.

Recession? We are looking at potentially 30-40% unemployment. The great depression peaked at 25%

Durden · Mar 26, 2020

I'm just waiting until this bill goes through so I can file myself. Never have and hoped I never would have, but here we are.

digitalrelic · Mar 26, 2020

GaimeGuy said:
Recession? We are looking at potentially 30-40% unemployment. The great depression peaked at 25%

Except the Great Depression sustained unemployment rates in the 15%-25% range for 10 years. We've seen a week. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

JeTmAn · Mar 26, 2020

digitalrelic said:
Except the Great Depression sustained unemployment rates in the 15%-25% range for 10 years. We've seen a week. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

This isn't normal unemployment, either. There's nothing fundamentally unsound about the industries affected. Most of those jobs will come back once the virus is under control.

Fallout-NL · Mar 26, 2020

TheHunter said:
Worse since we still had things open and a workforce in 2008.

This is Great Depression 2.

GaimeGuy said:
Recession? We are looking at potentially 30-40% unemployment. The great depression peaked at 25%

Oh for sure, this is the other shoe, except the shoe is a steel toed boot.

digitalrelic said:
Except the Great Depression sustained unemployment rates in the 15%-25% range for 10 years. We've seen a week. Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

JeTmAn said:
This isn't normal unemployment, either. There's nothing fundamentally unsound about the industries affected. Most of those jobs will come back once the virus is under control.

Taking the longer view though, it's not unlikely.

digitalrelic · Mar 26, 2020

JeTmAn said:
This isn't normal unemployment, either. There's nothing fundamentally unsound about the industries affected. Most of those jobs will come back once the virus is under control.

Yep. I'm as scared as anyone but this forum sure likes to sensationalize and fear monger sometimes.

tomaxv · Mar 26, 2020

cameron said:
Talking Points Memo @TPM

Mnuchin on jobless claims numbers: "I just think these numbers right now are not relevant, and you know, whether they're bigger or smaller in the short term."

10:25 AM - Mar 26, 2020

Greg Schultz @schultzohio

Reminder that 'these numbers' are actually 'people' who have bills to pay and families to support https://twitter.com/TPM/status/1243182175727517697 …

11:06 AM - Mar 26, 2020

Ziltoidia 9 · Mar 26, 2020

I swear, I still think this is the event that many companies will use to automate where available.

Timeaisis · Mar 26, 2020

JeTmAn said:
This isn't normal unemployment, either. There's nothing fundamentally unsound about the industries affected. Most of those jobs will come back once the virus is under control.

Yeah, I don't understand why people are panicking about this. What did they expect? People to somehow still work during this? This is the easiest way for people to keep getting paid.

Will all these jobs come back? No. Does this mean all these people will be perpetually unemployed for the rest of the year? No. Unemployment claims aren't a curse, they are a remedy.

Mammoth Jones · Mar 26, 2020

srsly? said:
This pandemic is a once-in-a-century, global catastrophe. There's not going to be anything "quick" about the recovery from this, no matter how much we want it to be so. You're looking at years for getting back to commensurate levels--if we're lucky.

This. I'm just kinda baffled there wasn't a contingency plan for such a wild card. Global pandemic might be something governments should have backup plans for. Instead we kinda just making up bullshit as we go along so politicians can save face.

antonz · Mar 26, 2020

Mammoth Jones said:
This. I'm just kinda baffled there wasn't a contingency plan for such a wild card. Global pandemic might be something governments should have backup plans for. Instead we kinda just making up bullshit as we go along so politicians can save face.

To be fair the US Government does have procedures, plans etc. The Trump Administration just does not give a fuck because "My Election!" Federal Guidelines for instance state the Masks etc. should have been ordered 2 months ago instead of last week.

Mammoth Jones · Mar 26, 2020

antonz said:
To be fair the US Government does have procedures, plans etc. The Trump Administration just does not give a fuck because "My Election!" Federal Guidelines for instance state the Masks etc. should have been ordered 2 months ago instead of last week.

Ah, thank you for reminding me of that. God damned shame and this should be stressed in the media - President Tiny-Hands McFuckFace decided to ignore protocol and just do his own thing. Brilliant. So much winning.

Deleted member 42484 · Mar 26, 2020

Ecotic said:
On the bright side, maybe this crisis will frontload the job losses in the beginning of the recession, and recover somewhat quickly. Unemployment peaked nearly a year after the 2008 financial crisis happened, if I remember correctly. That was a slow bleedout. This time the job numbers could begin climbing around May or June.

I don't know if I follow. Why would job creation start in 4-8 weeks? That seems to go against everything I've heard regarding the pandemic.

Wraith · Apr 4, 2020

Jordan117 said:
Looks like Trump finally got his wall.

bye · Apr 4, 2020

Denman said:
I don't know if I follow. Why would job creation start in 4-8 weeks? That seems to go against everything I've heard regarding the pandemic.

a vast number of the jobs are furlough (you can file unemployment during this time), I'm scheduled to go back in mid May for example. It will get extended probably but we don't need to "create" jobs again as much as just re-open them

A Record 3.3 Million Americans Filed for Unemployment

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