However, the system that workers rely on to collect unemployment benefits is at risk of buckling — as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic — if there's another economic downturn, experts say.
Unemployment insurance provides temporary income support to laid-off workers, thereby helping prop up consumer spending and the broader U.S. economy during downturns.
There's also wide variation among states — which administer the programs — relative to factors like benefit amount, duration and eligibility, according to the report, authored by more than two dozen unemployment insurance experts.
Why the unemployment insurance program buckledJoblessness ballooned in the pandemic's early days.
Claims for unemployment benefits peaked at more than 6 million in early April 2020, up from roughly 200,000 a week before the pandemic.
Persons:
Joe Raedle, Michele Evermore, There's, Andrew Stettner, NASI, Stettner, haven't, Indivar Dutta, Gupta
Organizations:
Getty, The Century Foundation, U.S . Labor Department's, National Academy of Social Insurance, Labor, Labor Department, Roosevelt Institute
Locations:
Florida, Sunrise , Florida, U.S