Nearly a quarter of Pa.’s workforce has filed in past 6 weeks
Emily Previti
More than 1.5 million Pennsylvanians have filed for unemployment since early March, more than any other state but California. That translates to 23 percent of the commonwealth’s workforce having submitted claims, the fifth-highest share in the nation, according to the latest numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Those numbers don’t include gig workers and self-proprietors in most states, pending states rolling out new filing systems to accommodate those classes of workers. Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor and Industry launched its web portal for self-employed workers last weekend. Users reported several issues with the system, including an inability to complete the process if they indicated receiving a W-2. That problem has been fixed, according to the L&I website.
In the interim, some self-employed workers turned to Small Business Administration programs. But the $349 billion Congress authorized for the first round of funding ran out quickly. This story from WPSU’s Min Xian explains how some independent enterprises in Pa. are surviving as they await round two (Congress authorized another $310 billion on Thursday).
One Pennsylvanian who’d been having major problems filing for unemployment finally started receiving benefits. Lancaster County resident Jim Redcay told me that his unemployment payment posted to the account linked to his state-issued card early yesterday morning, more than a month after he first tried to file. You can listen to the initial story here.
Redcay is a woodworker who’s been employed by the same contractor for decades. In fact, a larger share of Pennsylvanians (more than a quarter) who’ve filed for unemployment in the past month or so work in the construction industry than any other, according to the latest L&I data.
They’re also set to be among the first back on the job, with Gov. Tom Wolf’s announcement Wednesday that all construction can resume May 1. Some projects barely stopped, resuming after getting a waiver (a process that remains murky as state officials decline to release a list of which businesses got waivers or say when they might do so, PA Post’s Ed Mahon reports).
About 5.5 percent of Pa. claimants work in the hospitality industry. That’s midrange among business sectors statewide, but varies widely depending on where you are in the state (at least double that percentage in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, for example).
Also, many hospitality workers depend heavily on tips, so their unemployment benefits normally don’t come as close to their typical income as those in other industries. With all that in mind, the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association has launched a relief fund that you can read about — or support — here.
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