Organizing the Unemployed A replicable strategy for organizing the jobless on a mass scale has yet to emerge. The future may depend on finding one. Waiting in line to file for unemployment benefits in Frankfort, Kentucky (Photo by John Sommers II/Getty Images) At the beginning of November, a million Americans filed new unemployment claims within a single week. Over 20 million were already receiving benefits. While the unemployment rate came down to 6.9 percent in October, that figure elides those whoâve dropped out of the labor force altogether. Indeed, many job losses considered âtemporaryâ in the spring have been reclassified as âpermanent.â At the time of writing, 13 million Americans stood to lose unemployment benefits theyâd been receiving through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs the day after Christmas. For many households, these emergency programs were their last remaining sources of income; their expiration is devastating. As an unemployed Tennessee restaurant manager told the