Many Laid Off Workers Still Having Trouble Applying For Unemployment

CHICAGO (CBS)-- Another round of new unemployment claims will be released by the government Thursday morning.

There's no clear end in site for the coronavirus outbreak, so financial analysts told CBS 2 there's no doubt there could be a lot of new claims this week, possibly millions more.

Last week's job report showed over 6.6 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits. That is far more than economists expected and double the all-time high set the previous week.

And if being laid off isn't enough to deal with, many of those laid off are facing hurdles to even apply for unemployment benefits.

The real question is, how many people are out of jobs, but not being reported in today's numbers because they can't get through to file a claim?

"Your benefits are based on the day you lose you job, not the day you make the claim, so it's plausible that a lot of folks are saying i'm not going to wait for four hours today to get through unemployment," Michael J. Hicks, a Ball State University economist said. "That really makes it difficult for economists to predict the magnitude of job losses able to apply."

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