John LaConte | jlaconte@vaildaily.com
We won’t know regional unemployment claim numbers for a couple weeks, but we know they’ll be big.
Nationwide numbers rolled out Thursday, spiking to 3.3 million over the previous week. County-level data lags about two weeks behind national numbers, said Jessica Valand, Workforce Colorado’s Northwest Colorado regional director. Valand’s territory includes Eagle County.
“We know that weekly unemployment claim filings in the U.S. last week spiked to about 3.3 million, compared to the peak week of the recession in 2008, where claims nationwide were around 700,000. Which is to say, when we do get those county numbers, they will be record-setting at a scale that would have been hard to imagine even a week ago,” Valand said.
The $2 trillion federal package that President Trump signed into law Friday afternoon will create a seismic shift in unemployment benefits.
“It will likely greatly expand unemployment payments and ease requirements on who is eligible to apply,” Valand said.
For employers who pay unemployment premiums, claims as a result of COVID-19 will not come from their employer accounts, nor contribute to premium rate increases, Valand said.
The federal package will mean $1,200 checks to many individual Americans, more for families, and expands the unemployment safety net. It also provides hundreds of billions of dollars for companies to maintain payroll.
Before the coronavirus steamrolled the country, Eagle County’s unemployment rate hovered around 2%.
Apply even if you’re seasonal
If your employer is closed because of COVID-19 and you’re out of a job, you should file for unemployment, even if you’re a seasonal worker, Valand said.
You have nothing to lose by filing, Valand said.
To begin the process, go to http://www.coloradoui.gov, Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment.