400,000 residents still collect on unemployment

Pandemic still squeezing businesses as aid evaporates

More than 15,000 Michiganders filed their initial claims for unemployment last week as 408,000 residents statewide continue to collect benefits.

That’s the second- largest week-over-week decrease in initial claims nationwide (Illinois had 4,271 fewer initial claims filed than the week prior). Michigan saw a decrease of 4,092 initial claims.

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid rose slightly last week to 870,000, a historically high figure that

shows that the viral pandemic is still squeezing restaurants, airlines, hotels and many other businesses six months after it first erupted.

The figure 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 and clear their pipelines of a backlog of jobless claims.

Nationally, another 870,000 American workers filed new jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 16 – the fourth week that new jobless claims came in below a million, according to the most recent numbers released by the U.S. Labor Department. The fourweek moving average in initial unemployment claims is 878,250 with over 12.5 million Americans unemployed and an unemployment rate of 8.6 percent.

The steady decline in that 12.5 million figure over the past several months reflects that some of the unemployed are being re-hired. Yet it also indicates that others have exhausted their regular jobless aid, which last six months in most states.

Michigan’s 15,479 new jobless claims is the lowest number since March when the pandemic forced statewide shutdowns and mass layoffs and a slight decrease from the 17,392 new claims filed the week before.

Continuing jobless claims are seeing an uptick and are still at historic levels. The reporting of continuing claims continues to lag initial claims by a week.

For the week ending Sept. 12, there were 408,849 continuing jobless claims in the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency system, an increase of 15,144 over the prior week. For the week ending Sept. 5, there were 362,697 continuing claims in the state system.

The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) has not been providing county-level unemployment data for some time.

According to the Michigan Department of Technology, Management, and Budget (DTMB), Michigan’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged from July to August, remaining at 8.7 percent. Employment advanced by 93,000, while the number of unemployed inched up by 7,000. The state workforce rose by 99,000 from July to August.

Since April 2020, Michigan jobs have rebounded by 593,000, or 17.4 percent. Despite this, Michigan employment remains 456,000 below January 2020 levels (-10.3 percent).

In most sectors of the economy, employers appear reluctant to hire new workers in the face of deep uncertainty about the course of the virus.

On a percentage basis, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry exhibited the largest overthe-month

gain in employment, advancing by 3.4 percent. Michigan’s construction sector had the smallest percentage loss in jobs over the year among major industries, with employment edging down by 1.3 percent since August 2019.

Michigan’s Bureau of Labor Market Information indicates the pandemiclayoffs have disproportionately affected workers based on education.

The 12-month moving average for unemployment through August was 15.3% for people with less than a high school education, 9.8% for high school graduates, 8.6% for workers with some college education, and 3.7% for college graduates, according to theMichigan Labor Market Information website.

An extra $ 600 in weekly unemployment benefits ran out July 31, and a presidential executive order that provided enhanced unemployment benefits of $300 to $400 is also expiring.

Meanwhile, Congress appears deadlocked over the size of additional assistance to workers and businesses as the presidential election season enters its final weeks.

Some economic barometers, like housing, retail purchases and auto sales, have managed to produce solid gains. But with unemployment elevated at 8.4% and a key federal jobless benefit having expired, the economy’s gains are believed to be slowing.