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Never has the US needed its unemployment insurance (UI) system more than during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before the coronavirus crisis, the worst week for new unemployment claims in American history was in the fall of 1982. That year, the week ending September 18 saw 680,000 people claim benefits for the first time.
Fast-forward to the pandemic: The week ending March 21, 2020, saw
2.9 million first-time unemployment claims, more than four times the previous record. The weekly tally stayed above 1 million for months.
Luckily, the unprecedented surge in demand for unemployment benefits was met with an unprecedented surge in congressional support for the UI system. From March through July 2020, the federal government added an extra $600 to weekly checks for Americans out of work. And while that provision expired, $300 weekly bonuses were eventually brought back — first by Donald Trump and again as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan — and will continue through September. Meanwhile, the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program has offered generous UI benefits to gig workers and freelance workers who didn’t qualify for traditional unemployment.