The Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan auditing agency that works for Congress, was unsparing about the problems with unemployment statistics, as part of a lengthy report that looked at the country’s response to the coronavirus.
In Indiana, 20,454 people filed initial unemployment claims in the week ended Nov. 21, up from an adjusted number of 15,422 the previous week. Prior to the pandemic, the state was typically seeing fewer than 3,000 claims per week.
Indiana’s unemployment rate has been doggedly retracing its steps in recent months from 16.9% in April, when the pandemic paralyzed sections of the economy.
Initial jobless claims also ticked up in Indiana. Analysts say the worsening pandemic and the arrival of cold weather could accelerate layoffs in the weeks ahead.
The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week ,to 709,000, a still-high level but the lowest figure since March and a further sign that the job market might be slowly healing.
The forecast holds out hope for positive economic growth in the second half of 2021 in Indiana, but it assumes the state will either remain at Stage 5 of Gov. Eric Holcomb’s reopening plan or operate under even fewer restrictions.
The U.S. economy has recovered two-thirds of the ground it lost during the first half of the year, and yet has a long way to go and remains vulnerable, economists said.
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell by 7,000 last week, to 751,000, continuing a slow decline but remaining at a still-historically high level.
Indiana also experienced a weekly decrease in initial jobless claims, according to Labor Department data released Thursday.
The pace of Indiana’s steadily improving unemployment rate slowed considerably in September. Meanwhile, the state’s labor force participation rate and private employment numbers dropped.
More than 10 million Americans will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance this year as a result of a pandemic-related job loss in their household.
The September jobs report coincides with other data that suggests that while the economic picture may be improving, the gains have slowed since summer.
Fewer Americans than expected sought unemployment benefits last week. The latest claims numbers reflect gradual labor-market improvement but remain well above pre-virus levels.
Thursday’s labor report coincides with evidence that some newly laid-off Americans are facing delays in receiving unemployment benefits as state agencies intensify efforts to combat fraudulent applications
The latest employment numbers from the state also reversed two troubling indicators from July’s report: a significant decrease in the state’s labor force and in its labor-force participation rate.
A total of 162,009 people were receiving unemployment benefits in Indiana as of Sept. 5, the Labor Department said Thursday morning. That was up from 158,742 the previous week.
Indiana Department of Workforce Development chief of staff Josh Richardson said the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund is expected to run dry by the end of September.
The nation’s unemployment safety net is looking increasingly shaky, with a $300-a-week federal jobless benefit from the Trump administration close to running out just weeks after it began.
Unemployed Hoosiers can expect to start seeing the federal supplemental weekly benefit in about two weeks, state officials said Wednesday.
The U.S. economy has recovered about half of the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic.
