Article is idiotic. 1. The federal claims are ones that would not ordinarily be accepted for State unemployment (e.g. contract workers). It would be irresponsi

Article is idiotic. 1. The federal claims are ones that would not ordinarily be accepted for State unemployment (e.g. contract workers). It would be irresponsible to compare UI claims YoY that have vastly different criteria. 2. That being said, obviously there is increased unemployment amongst people who would ordinarily not qualify for UI. 3. Seasonal adjustments are small, why even mention them. 4. None of this is the BLS Unemployment survey numbers from the Current Population Survey (the "headline" unemployment rate you see in the news), which is exactly that; a survey that asks people if they are unemployed/underemployed/seeking work. (Which has its own, quite separate methodologies.) [1] [1] https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm