How many times can economic experts say “unexpected” and retain any credibility? Temporary census jobs are ending. That will start to show up on Friday. While the AP was glad to ignore Census jobs as the reason unemployment went down, you can count they’ll highlight it now to explain away Friday’s “unexpected” increase.
The one thing that would create a huge unexpected decrease if Congress stops extending unemployment benefits, forcing people to relocate where they can find work or accept less than ideal jobs.
A question if anyone knows – and the answer may be different in each state. I think you have to work for an employer for an amount of time before you qualify for unemployment checks charged to that employer’s account.
Were those Census jobs long enough to qualify people to restart the unemployment clock over?
If a person was on unemployment, worked for the Census for a month or two and let go – what now? Are they ineligible to collect unemployment? Does the payor revert back to the previous employer? Does the clock start all over?
I can only speak for the state of Indiana, as that is where I had experience with unemployment insurance. Indiana encourages the unemployed to seek work, so they will allow you to draw unemployment even if you are working a part time or temporary job. The compensation makes up the difference between what the state says you are entitled to receive per week and what you are actually earning on your job. If you earn more as a temp than your weekly allocation, the benefit stops until you are below the threshhold again. Also, a person needs to work full time on a permanent job at least 90 days (16 weeks) in order to qualify to receive unemployment.
That makes me have another question… the Census people are (temporary) Federal Government employees. I doubt the US Government allows itself to be taxed by State Unemployment Insurance funds. I wonder if there is some special treatment for this situation. In CT, the employer has the option of just directly paying the actual amount paid out to former employees, rather than running up a balance due in the contribution fund account.