
Unemployment insurance is designed to be a stopgap measure, a way for people who have lost a job, wages or hours through no fault of their own to make ends meet for a short period of time.
In Colorado, the average weekly benefit pencils out to just $400, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Like during the Great Recession, unemployment benefits are now taking on a critical, expanded role during the double-barrel crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic chaos that has spun off from it. The life preserver is now being looked at as a life raft with the futures of countless businesses and jobs tied the how quickly the pandemic can be brought under control and what society looks like when that happens.
“It’s urgent,” Kevin Saunders, a 29-year-old Denver resident who applied for unemployment last week after being laid off from his job at an IHOP said Friday. “I got my last check yesterday. I spent it all on food and water, so within the next two weeks to 30 days, I don’t have too much of a backup plan.”
Federal leaders are feeling that urgency after almost 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment of the course of the week ending March 21.
On Friday, President Donald Trump signed a $2.2 trillion financial relief package aimed at softening the blow of the pandemic. The legislation included provisions of upping unemployment benefits across the nation by $600 a week beyond what individual states are paying for four months, expanding eligibility to include previously uncovered gig workers and self-employed people and extending benefits by 13 weeks beyond what a given state pays, according to the office of U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver.
The increase in need in Colorado is already staggering.
During the week ending March 21, 19,745 Coloradans filed new unemployment claims. That shattered the state’s previous single-week record of 7,749 new claims filed when the impacts of the Great Recession reached their zenith in January 2010. The sky-high total only hinted at the demand.
After making system upgrades and adding 90 staffers to its call center last week, the state labor department fielded 61,000 new unemployment applications between last Monday and Thursday. Not every application will result in a new claim after eligibility is sorted out but the number blows by the 25,000 applications filed between March 16-20.
Combining the numbers from the prior two weeks, more than 2.6% of the state’s roughly 3.2 million active workers filed unemployment applications in an 11-day span. That’s higher than the state’s total unemployment rate for February, a record low 2.5%.
“I would say we are just seeing the beginning of this, honestly,” Colorado labor department senior economist Ryan Gedney told a conference call of reporters Friday. “It’s extremely difficult to see the tail.”
Here is a breakdown of key questions about the state’s critical unemployment lifeline:
Who is eligible for benefits?
Like Saunders, many people who have applied for unemployment insurance in Colorado in recent weeks are doing so for the first time. The labor department is preparing to launch a new landing page for its unemployment website, coloradoui.gov, that spokeswoman Cher Haavind expects will make it easier for employers and workers to find information. According to a frequently asked questions document shared with reporters this week, some of the base requirements for benefits are:- The applicant earned at least $2,500 (including tips) between October 2018 and September 2019.
- The applicant is now working less than 32 hours per week and earning less than the weekly benefit amount on their claim.
- The applicant is able and available to return to work for their employer when they can open or return to normal operations if they are job attached.