New Unemployment Claims Ease In Early June, But Recovery Remains Slow

From the Georgia Recorder:

By Ross Williams

Unlike many other unemployed Georgians, Christina Walker of Macon still has a job to go back to, but the former shift leader at the donuts and coffee chain Dunkin’ can’t afford to clock back in yet.

Treatment for three different types of leukemia left her 17-year-old daughter Savannah cancer-free, but with severely compromised defenses against viruses like the one that carries COVID-19.

“She has zero immune system. She has less of an immune system than a newborn baby, so with her having a higher risk of catching anything, I self-quarantined,” Walker said. “I couldn’t bear the thought if I brought something home to my daughter. She doesn’t have an immune system. Something like that could kill her.”

Walker also lives with her parents, who are both in their 70s and suffer health problems that make them especially vulnerable to novel coronavirus infection.

Fewer Georgians requested unemployment benefits last week than during the historically painful month of April. Still, even with a decrease in new claims to about 135,000 from 149,000, many families like the Walkers continue to struggle to pay bills as the state’s labor department struggles to catch up with a record volume of jobless claims.

The weekly figures can mask the depths of the economic crisis since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down travel and hospitality industries in early March and clipped many other businesses soon after. The downturn is worse in some respects than the Great Recession a decade ago, as more than 44 million Americans have filed new unemployment claims since mid-March.

Walker has been out of work since March 27, but she waited until April 20 to file for unemployment because she didn’t know people like her with a job waiting would be eligible. when business recovers from the state’s stay-home orders.

People who cannot work because they have an immune deficiency or live with someone who has one are eligible for unemployment benefits. So are people who are either older than 60 or live with someone that age, as are parents of school-age children who can’t find childcare because of the pandemic.

Walker said the Georgia Department of Labor confirmed that she is eligible for benefits, but she hasn’t gotten paid yet, despite being told money was on the way June 3. She also gets conflicting information when she checks her payment status online. It seems to change from day to day, she said.

For now, Walker’s family is getting by on food stamps and her parents’ pensions. Macon-based juvenile cancer foundation Jay’s Hope is helping with gas cards so Savannah can get to her doctor’s appointments in Atlanta. Walker counts herself lucky that she has a job to go back to once the pandemic-related business shutdown lifts.

Watching your child fight cancer teaches you to take things in stride, Walker said.

“I understand it’s a waiting game at this point, because there’s a billion people trying to get employment, and everybody’s just got to wait your turn,” she said. “Unfortunately, some people are getting it a lot quicker than others, and I wish I knew their trick, but I’m just trying to be patient with this because I didn’t think I was going to get it in the first place. I’m just trying to keep a positive attitude about it. If the money shows up, it shows up. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.”

Others cannot afford to be patient.

Tracie Scott’s day job was in the computer lab and after school program for Bibb County Schools, but music is her passion. The saxophonist played at churches, parties and other events around the state until gigs started drying up as large events began to shut down in March.

Scott and many of her co-workers are temporarily laid off because of COVID-19, until the school system reopens, she said.

“I am the only one that I know of that hasn’t received anything yet,” she said. “And it’s been since April that they applied for me. I was thinking since they applied, it would go through a little faster. And the people that work with me do the same job that I do. They have gotten paid.”

Scott said her family is getting by on her husband’s salary for now, but that can’t last forever.

She said she’s reached out to her state senator, waited in line at Staples to fax documents, sent countless emails and spent entire work days on the phone in an attempt to straighten things out.

“You can’t just call and they pick up, you have to keep, keep, keep calling, start at the beginning of the day and keep calling,” she said.

When someone at the state labor department does answer the phone, she can’t get an answer why she’s not getting paid, she said.

“It seems like there’s no need to call them because they don’t answer your questions. They don’t have the answer for you. You’ve been calling all day, you finally get them and they just tell you ‘We’re busy. Call us back.’

That’s incredibly frustrating, Scott said, but she has no choice but to keep calling.

“I’m trying to get them to give us something that is entitled to us and we have worked for. We’re not responsible for the pandemic. It was not in our control. If it was in our control, we would be at work. Since we can’t go to work, we have to sit and wait.”

About 61,000 fewer Georgians filed continuing claims in the last week in May than in the week before.

Nationwide, more than 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment for the first time last week, down 355,000 from the week before.

This story was originally published by the Georgia Recorder. For more stories from the Georgia Recorder, visit GeorgiaRecorder.com.