Unemployment: Layoffs from final two weeks of April won't show up in report

The government calculates job losses by surveying businesses and households. It’s a net figure that also counts the hiring that some companies, like Amazon and many grocery stores, have done. By contrast, the total jobless claims are a cumulative figure; they include applications for unemployment aid that began in mid-March.

In addition, the government conducts its surveys for the monthly jobs reports in the middle of each month. So layoffs from the final two weeks of April won’t show up in Friday’s jobs report. They will instead be included in the May jobs report to be released in early June.

After problems with state computer systems had slowed the distribution of federal benefits for many laid-off workers, all 50 states are now paying the $600 extra weekly benefit that the federal government included in a relief package enacted in late March. That represents a significant help to millions of laid-off workers, many of whom still remain anxious and uncertain.

Jamie Stewart is renting out a spare bedroom in her home to try to make ends meets after losing her job at a southwest Florida resort.

Having applied for unemployment benefits in late March, she finally received her first payment of $1,200 this week. Stewart, a 37-year-old resident of Bonita Springs, works as a concierge in the off-season and as a shift manager and bartender in the resort’s restaurants.

After her layoff, she deferred her car payment for two months and cancelled non-necessities like Zoom, Pandora and Netflix. She recently signed up for food stamps, which cover about half her monthly grocery bill.

Florida began some limited reopening of its economy this week, including allowing restaurants to serve customers in outdoor seating. But Stewart’s resort hasn’t set a date to reopen its restaurants, and future reservations haven’t picked up enough for them to call her back to work.

“My mental health has deteriorated to a point that I don’t recognize myself anymore,” she said. “My eyes are swollen and bloodshot all the time now from regular moments of weakness that leave me completely inconsolable.

“It looks like I have aged 10 years since the lockdown started.”