Texas jobless claims jump 20%
Number of applicants rises for the second week in a row
New claims for unemployment benefits in Texas, an early indicator of the jobless rate, jumped more than 20 percent last week, according to the Department of Labor.
About 117,000 people in Texas applied for unemployment benefits last week, up from about 96,000 the week prior. It’s the first time that the number of initial jobless claims surpassed 100,000 a week since May.
New jobless claims had been largely slowing over the last three months from the record highs in late March and early April, when initial claims surpassed 300,000 per week. For the last several weeks, claims had been tracking about six times higher than precoronavirus rates; typically, about 14,000 people apply for unemployment benefits in Texas each week.
But last week, claims accelerated, now at a rate eight times higher than before shutdowns to slow the spread of the virus began.
Nationally, the rate of new jobless benefits claims ticked down, with 1.4 million last week, a slight decrease from the week before and a significant slowdown compared with late March and early April when claims neared 7 million per week.
The increase in Texas is the latest indicator that the state is struggling to contain both the health and economic consequences of COVID-19. With infections surging, Gov. Greg Abbott two weeks ago ordered bars to shut down again and restricted restaurants to 50 percent capacity.
On Wednesday, the state reported 112 confirmed fatalities from the virus, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of government data. This week, Texas surpassed 10,000 new cases per day on Tuesday and reported almost that many on Wednesday.
Unemployment benefits claim
ants are still struggling to get and keep their benefits from the Texas Workforce Commission, the state agency that manages unemployment benefits and has been overwhelmed by the millions of claims it has received during the COVID-19 crisis.
While the agency has expanded its phone line capacity, hired more agents to take calls and upgraded its website, claimants still report delays and struggle to get through to the agency to ask questions about their benefits.
Texas’ early reopening efforts pressured the Texas Workforce Commission to find workarounds for dealing with the mass unemployment caused by the health crisis at the same time as Abbott pushed to reopen Texas businesses. The workforce commission last week was forced to walk back plans to reinstate a requirement to search for work to keep receiving benefits.
Commissioners decided it wasn’t practical to reinstate the rule because of spiking cases of COVID-19 across the state.
When shutdown orders began to lift, the agency had to provide assurance to claimants that it would allow claimants to refuse work if their jobs them or their household at a great risk of the virus.
Reasonable reasons to refuse work, the TWC said, include being 65 years of age or older, which would put them at a higher risk of death from the virus, being diagnosed with COVID-19, living with someone who was diagnosed with COVID-19, being quarantined due to close contact with a person who tested positive for COVID-19, living in a household with a highrisk person, such as an elderly parent, or caring for a child if no other child care options are available.
Unemployment benefits have been extended twice in Texas since the state triggered emergency federal programs after reporting high unemployment rates in April and May. Claimants will be eligible for more than a year of state benefits while unemployment rates remain elevated.
The additional $600 per week provided by the federal CARES Act is slated to expire at the end of July unless extended by Congress.
Texas’ unemployment rate was 13.5 percent in April, the highest jobless rate on record, which goes back to 1976.
The Texas Workforce Commission has paid out nearly $17 billion in unemployment benefits since the crisis began, according to agency data.