Economics
U.S. Jobless-Claims Figures Inflated by States’ Backlog-Clearing
- Overcounting adds to questions on weekly national totals
- One person can count as multiple claims in a single week
This article is for subscribers only.
The weekly U.S. jobless claims report shows that 11 million people are on a new federal aid program geared toward the self-employed, accounting for more than a third of total claims across the country.
But that figure -- cited by economists alongside traditional claims in regular state programs as helping provide a more complete picture of unemployment -- likely overstates the true count. In some cases, by a lot.