Lockdown Nation And The 5%

It turns out the number is 43.0 million. That’s the total number of new unemployment claims filed during the past 9 weeks when you add the 38.6 million claims under the regular state programs to the 4.4 million workers who have become newly eligible under the Federal bailout.

These latter includes the gig workers, self-employed, and contract workers not covered by state programs, who are now eligible to receive unemployment insurance under the so-called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).