What happens when unemployment benefits run out? (with Ioana Marinescu)

Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer

Civic Ventures

Business, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2020

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Right now, 26.3 million workers are either on unemployment or waiting to be approved for unemployment benefits. But for many of these jobless workers, the clock is running out on their eligibility to receive unemployment — and with no stimulus bill in sight, we could be entering a grim new phase of this recession. What will happen to the economy when unemployment insurance runs out? What will happen to the people who rely on those benefits? Economist Ioana Marinescu helps Nick and Goldy understand what the near-future of unemployment benefits looks like in the U.S. Ioana Marinescu is an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She studies the labor market to craft policies that can enhance employment, productivity, and economic security. Twitter: @mioana Show us some love by leaving a rating or a review! RateThisPodcast.com/pitchforkeconomics Further reading: Emergency unemployment programs will expire at year’s end, putting millions at risk: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/business/emergency-unemployment-programs-will-expire-at-years-end-putting-millions-at-risk.html Policy Basics: How many weeks of unemployment compensation are available?: https://www.cbpp.org/research/economy/policy-basics-how-many-weeks-of-unemployment-compensation-are-available 30 weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic and workers desperately need stimulus: https://www.epi.org/blog/30-weeks-in-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-workers-desperately-need-stimulus/ Unemployment insurance and job search behavior: http://www.marinescu.eu/publication/marinescu-unemployment-2020/ You can’t afford to live anywhere in the United States solely on unemployment insurance: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/news/2020/09/10/490265/cant-afford-live-anywhere-united-states-solely-unemployment-insurance/ With millions of people out of work, the Senate’s inaction is not only cruel, it’s bad economics: https://www.epi.org/blog/with-millions-of-people-out-of-work-the-senates-inaction-is-not-only-cruel-its-bad-economics/ Scraping by on benefits and part-time work, but a cutoff looms at year’s end: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/business/scraping-by-on-benefits-and-part-time-work-but-a-cutoff-looms-at-years-end.html How America gave up on fighting the pandemic and saving the economy: https://www.vox.com/21523204/coronavirus-unemployment-stimulus-economy 8 million have slipped into poverty since May as federal aid has dried up: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/us/politics/federal-aid-poverty-levels.html Pelosi sends letter to Secretary Mnuchin on areas still awaiting responses from White House: https://www.speaker.gov/newsroom/102920 Slowdown in jobs added means we could be years away from a full recovery: https://www.epi.org/press/slowdown-in-jobs-added-means-we-could-be-years-away-from-a-full-recovery/ Exclusive: America’s true unemployment rate: https://www.axios.com/americas-true-unemployment-rate-6e34decb-c274-4feb-a4af-ffac8cf5840d.html Young workers hit hard by the Covid-19 economy: https://www.epi.org/publication/young-workers-covid-recession/ Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com/ Twitter: @PitchforkEcon Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Nick’s twitter: @NickHanauer

Transcript

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0:00.0	Department of Labor data suggests that 26.3 million workers are currently either on unemployment or are waiting to get approved.
0:11.0	One of the things this crisis has exposed is how incredibly screwed up our current unemployment
0:17.3	system is.
0:18.3	Our unemployment crisis, certainly until June, was not a crisis of people not wanting to go back to work but a crisis of
0:26.3	jobs not being there.
0:31.6	From the home offices of Civic Ventures in downtown Seattle, this is Pitch Fork Economics with Nick Hanauer.
0:38.0	The only podcast that dares to say that the Khan at the center of economics is costing us trillions.
0:47.0	I'm Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures.
0:52.0	I'm David Goldstein Senior Fellow at Civic Ventures.
0:57.0	Today we have a really interesting conversation about what happens to the economy when
1:04.2	unemployment benefits run out. The week of October 12 was the 32nd
1:09.4	straight week, the total initial unemployment claims are far greater than the worst week of the Great
1:16.4	Recession.
1:17.4	And to give you a sense for how big this crisis might become, Department of Labor data suggests that 26.3 million workers are currently
1:26.8	either on unemployment benefits or are waiting to get approved. That's a lot of people. And of course as is always the case in the
1:35.2	United States the the impact of this pandemic and the recession that started has
1:41.0	been disproportionate on people of color.
1:45.4	The unemployment rate for white workers is 7%.
1:48.8	Still high, especially considering we were at 3% total before the pandemic hit.
1:54.3	But for black workers it's 12.1% and for Hispanic workers it's 10.3%.
2:00.4	And of course that's largely also because it has been disproportionate on low wage workers.
2:06.9	And our low wage workers are disproportionately non-white.
	...

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