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The GAO said the U.S. Department of Labor’s weekly jobless claims figures contain a number of inaccuracies, making it difficult for policymakers to respond to the unemployment crisis caused by the pandemic.
A government watchdog has found that the Department of Labor’s widely watched weekly unemployment benefit data provides an inaccurate reading of the number of workers newly laid off due to flaws in government data collection.
The Government Accountability Office said in a report on Monday that the Department of Labor’s weekly report on the number of people filing new unemployment benefits and those receiving continuous claims contained a number of inaccuracies.
GAO said problems with data collection and reporting made it difficult for policymakers to get a reliable picture of what unemployment was doing during the pandemic.
GAO said the problem arose because the Labor Department was using the number of people filing claims in each state as an approximation of the number of people claiming benefits nationwide. However, this has resulted in inaccurate counts due to large backlogs in processing historical levels of claims and other data collection issues.
“Without accurate accounting of the number of individuals relying on these benefits as close to real time as possible, policymakers may be challenged to respond to the current crisis,” GAO said in its report.
The GAO recommended that the Department of Labor revise its weekly press releases to clarify that the numbers in the reports are not an accurate estimate of the number of people claiming benefits.
policymakers can be challenged to respond to the current crisis
The GAO also recommended that the department research other ways to get more accurate readings on benefit claims such as using additional data collected by states.
The GAO report said the Labor Department had agreed to revise its weekly press releases and agreed to pursue options for getting more accurate data from states. But the Labor Department backed down from a recommendation to seek state data dating back to January 2020, saying collecting retrospective data would be too much of a burden for unemployment bureaus already under strain.
In response to the pandemic, which triggered closings and the loss of millions of jobs, Congress has provided support through three programs. He boosted relief through the regular $ 600 per week unemployment program to provide more support. He also extended that relief from the usual 26 weeks to 39 weeks and he also created a pandemic unemployment assistance program that provided benefits to workers in the odd-job economy and the self-employed.
The program offering an additional $ 600 in weekly benefits expired at the end of July, while the On-Demand and Self-Employed Assistance Program and Extended Benefits Program are both scheduled to expire at the end of December. .
Congressional negotiators have so far been unable to reach agreement on reviving these benefit programs, with Democrats and Republicans remaining wide apart on the size of yet another relief bill.
The GAO report also found that benefit payments under the On-Demand Worker and Self-Employed Assistance Program found that the majority of states paid unemployed people in these programs the minimum eligible benefit instead of the amount. to which they would be entitled on their previous earnings.
The GAO findings were part of the congressional oversight agency’s routine reviews of the operation of the programs Congress passed earlier this year to provide support to the country after the economy entered a deep recession.
Democratic Representative James Clyburn, chairman of the House Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said the new report highlighted the continuing failures of the Trump administration in handling the challenges of the pandemic.
“With the coronavirus killing over a thousand Americans every day, I fully agree with the GAO that we need urgent action to prevent further loss of life and livelihood for Americans, “Clyburn said in a statement.
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