What unemployment claims tell us about coronavirus job losses

Millions of U.S. workers have filed unemployment applications each week since disruptions became widespread from the coronavirus pandemic. A survey by economics researchers provides more timely and accurate jobless information than the Labor Department's weekly report.

Millions of U.S. workers have filed unemployment applications each week since disruptions became widespread from the coronavirus pandemic. A survey by Associate Professor of Economics Alex Bick and Assistant Professor of Economics Adam Blandin of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business provides more timely and accurate jobless information than the Labor Department's weekly report.

In this story published May 20, 2020, in The Wall Street Journal:

About one million Americans tried to apply but were unable to do so in the week ended May 2, according to Alexander Bick, an economics professor at Arizona State University, and Adam Blandin, an economics professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, based on a survey they conducted with about 3,000 individuals. Those individuals were excluded from the 3.2 million jobless claims recorded that week.