Gig workers are now relying on a safety net program that didn't even exist six months ago. It provides unemployment benefits to the growing number who don't have a traditional payroll job.
Georgia began 2020 with a strong labor market. The state’s unemployment rate in January was the lowest on record at 3.1%, and the number of Georgians looking for work was the lowest since 2001.
But everything changed in March as Georgia doctors began seeing their first cases of COVID-19.
Owensboro, Ky., has enjoyed the closest thing to a V-shaped recovery of any city in the country. Its jobless rate soared in April but by June was back to pre-pandemic levels.
Fewer jobs were added to the economy last month even as the unemployment rate fell to 8.4%. Job growth has slowed since June in a sign of what could be a long and painful recovery from the recession.
Another 881,000 people applied for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department says. That's down from the previous week, but the report comes with an asterisk.
Initial unemployment claims had been above 1 million for 20 straight weeks. The total receiving unemployment also dipped, to 28.3 million, as of July 25.
The $600 weekly pandemic unemployment payments have single-handedly changed the economic equation in America as people earn more staying home than they did in the jobs they lost.
New claims for unemployment benefits rise to 1.4 million, a sign that the labor market is deteriorating as businesses close their doors again after the pandemic intensifies.
Working in the food service industry can be a tough gig, even without a pandemic . Many workers are uninsured and — like the restaurants employing them ...
Georgia’s Medicaid and PeachCare rolls continue to grow amid the economic devastation from COVID-19.
Newly released June enrollment figures show that Medicaid membership grew by 23,000, while PeachCare, the children’s health insurance program in Georgia, saw enrollment rise by nearly 14,000.
People who lose their job-based health plan usually get 60 days to decide to continue it — and pay more — under federal rules. But a recent pandemic-related rule change allows more decision time.
Millions of Americans who lost jobs during the pandemic are in danger of having their incomes cut for a second time. The sudden halt in payments would be felt in households and throughout the economy.
The coronavirus pandemic has amplified already existing issues of food insecurity. Meanwhile, many large corporations aren’t open, or aren’t operating at full capacity, and their kitchens are going underused. That’s why two Atlanta nonprofits have teamed up for the “Atlanta Community Kitchen Project,” coordinating with companies to fire up those underutilized ovens and cook up meals to donate.
Applications for jobless benefits are up again. "What we're seeing now is that lots more people who are unemployed are going to be unemployed for a longer period of time," economist Nick Bunker says.