Millions locked out of U.S. unemployment system: survey

Ben Zipperer, the lead author for the Economic Policy Institute's recent online poll on unemployment claims, says many Americans have been unable to register for unemployment as the economy plunged following the coronavirus outbreak.

Millions of Americans who have been thrown out of work during the coronavirus pandemic have been unable to register for unemployment benefits since the U.S. economy entered a free fall, according to a poll released on Tuesday (April 28).

The left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found in an online poll that for every 10 people who have successfully filed unemployment claims, three or four people have been unable to register and another two people have not tried to apply at a time of acute economic crisis.

Official U.S. statistics show that 26.5 million people have applied for unemployment benefits since mid-March, wiping out all of the jobs gained during the longest employment boom in U.S. history.

EPI's survey indicates that an additional 8.9 million to 13.9 million people have been shut out of the system, said Ben Zipperer, the study's lead author.

Idled workers say they have encountered downed websites and clogged phone lines, as the state governments that administer the program have been overwhelmed by applicants.EPI surveyed 24,607 U.S. adult internet users using Google Surveys between April 13 and April 24.

The poll has a confidence interval, an indicator of accuracy, of plus or minus 1%.