the Washington State Unemployment blog

Initial jobless claims fall to lowest level since 2008

Fewer Americans filed for their first week of unemployment benefits last week. So few in fact, that initial jobless claims were at their lowest level since May 2008.
About 366,000 people filed initial jobless claims in the week ended Dec. 10, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was a decrease of 19,000 from the prior week, and far better than the bigger influx of claims that economists were expecting.

Last week marked the lowest level of initial unemployment claims since May 31, 2008, a welcome sign that hiring may have picked up further in December. Economists often look for the weekly tally to stay below 400,000 to signal that job growth is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate, which is currently at 8.6%.
Amid the worst of the recession, unemployment offices around the country were at one point processing as many as 659,000 initial claims per week. The influx of applications has slowed since then, and after flatlining this summer, it seems to be improving further.
“There has been some decline in uncertainty, some reduction of immediate recessionary fears in the U.S., and coupled with better data, this suggests firms are a little more willing to hire,” said Michael Gapen, senior U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.

What can you do if your unemployment checks have run out, are about to run out, or, in case you can’t get by on unemployment advantages, which usually are not enough to live on?

Furthermore to unemployment compensation, you’ll find many different other resources obtainable for people collecting unemployment, too as for those who are out of unemployment positive aspects, and for their families. You’ll find eligibility guidelines so check to figure out what aid you may be able to receive.

Check for Updates on Unemployment Extensions

Extra Extended Unemployment Compensation benefits could be implemented. Check regularly for updates on probable federal unemployment extensions.

Government Assistance

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Each state has a Temporary Help for Needy Families (TANF) program (formerly called welfare). TANF can assist with food stamps, monetary assistance, training, and job searching. This directory, from About.com’s Guide to Single Parents Jennifer Wolf, has contact data for each state.

Food Stamps

The federal Food Stamp Program, now known as Supplemental Nutrition Help Program (SNAP) helps low income families and people get food.

Medicaid

Medicaid offers medical benefits to low income people who have no medical insurance or have inadequate medical insurance.

WIC

WIC stands for Females, Infants, and Kids. WIC can be a supplemental nutrition program administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Unemployment Benefits Washington State

Coverage

To be able to qualify for positive aspects, an unemployed individual usually should have worked lately for a covered employer for a specified time period and earned a specific quantity of wages. About 125 million individuals were covered by all UC Programs in 2000, representing 97 percent of all wage and salary workers and 89 percent of the civilian labor force.

FUTA covers particular employers that State laws also need to cover for employers within the States to qualify for the five.4 percent Federal credit. Since employers within the States would lose this credit and their employees would not be covered if the States did not have this coverage, all States cover the needed groups: (1) except for nonprofit organizations, State-local governments, specific agricultural labor, and particular domestic service, FUTA covers employers who paid wages of a minimum of $1,500 throughout any calendar quarter or who employed at least one worker in a minimum of 1 day of each and every of 20 weeks in the existing or prior year; (2) FUTA covers agricultural labor for employers who paid cash wages of a minimum of $20,000 for agricultural labor in any calendar quarter or who employed 10 or more workers in at least 1 day in each and every of 20 various weeks within the existing or prior year; and (three) FUTA covers domestic service employers who paid money wages of $1,000 or much more for domestic service in the course of any calendar quarter within the existing or prior year.

FUTA needs coverage of nonprofit organization employers of a minimum of four workers for 1 day in every of 20 diverse weeks in the existing or prior year and State-local governments without regard to the number of employees. Nonprofit and State-local government organizations aren’t required to pay Federal unemployment taxes; they might select instead to reimburse the system for advantages paid to their laid-off employees.

States might cover particular employment not covered by FUTA, but most States have chosen not to expand FUTA coverage considerably. The following employment is as a result typically not covered: (1) self-employment; (2) particular agricultural labor and domestic service; (three) service for relatives; (4) service of patients in hospitals; (5) certain student interns; (6) certain alien farmworkers; (7) particular seasonal camp workers; and (8) railroad workers (who’ve their own unemployment program).

What is Unemployment?

Click Here to watch a funny video on the History of Unemployment Insurance

The Social Security Act of 1935 (Public Law 74-271) developed the Federal-State Unemployment Compensation (UC) Program. The program has two principal objectives: (1) to offer temporary and partial wage replacement to involuntarily unemployed workers who had been lately employed; and (2) to support stabilize the economy throughout recessions. The U.S. Department of Labor oversees the program, but each State administers its own program. Simply because Federal law defines the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands as States for the purposes of UC, there are 53 State programs.

The Federal Unemployment Tax Act of 1939 (Public Law 76- 379) and titles III, IX, and XII of the Social Security Act form the framework of the program. The Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) imposes a 6.2 percent gross tax rate on the very first $7,000 paid annually by covered employers to each employee. Employers in States with programs approved by the Federal Government and with no delinquent Federal loans may credit five.four percentage points against the 6.2 percent tax rate, producing the minimum net Federal unemployment tax rate 0.8 percent. Since all States have approved programs, 0.8 percent is the successful Federal tax rate. This Federal revenue finances administration of the system, half of the Federal-State Extended Advantages (EB) Program, along with a Federal account for State loans. The individual States finance their own programs, as well as their half of the Federal-State Extended Benefits Program.

In 1976, Congress passed a surtax of 0.2 percent of taxable wages to be added to the permanent FUTA tax rate (Public Law 94-566). Therefore, the current powerful 0.8 percent FUTA tax rate has two components: a permanent tax rate of 0.6 percent, and a surtax rate of 0.2 percent. The surtax has been extended five times, most recently by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-34) through December 31, 2007.

Washington State Unemployment
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