By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX -- Another more than 95,000 Arizonans filed for unemployment benefits this past week.
The new claims, while short of the record set the prior week, boost the number of people who have sought jobless pay since the COVID-19 outbreak in Arizona to close to 350,000. That compares with about 2.56 million workers in the private sector before the outbreak.
Also Monday, the Department of Economic Security began distributing the additional $600 a week in benefits, on top of the state maximum of $240, with the additional dollars provided under a federal relief package.
"Our target is to make all retroactive payments to eligible claimants by the end of this week,'' said agency spokesman Brett Bezio.
But the number of applicants and active recipients of benefits may not provide a true picture of the folks who have found themselves out of work.
There are any number of people who have previously applied who are not yet receiving benefits as they work their way through the system.
There also are those who have not yet gotten through.
DES Director Tom Betlach acknowledged last week that many people are finding it difficult to even apply for benefits. The system, he said, is built to handle what has been the typical average of only 3,000 applications a week.
Betlach said his staff has been expanded, with more hiring to come and efforts to work with private groups to process applications.
And there's something else missing in the numbers.
State lawmakers have enacted restrictions on eligibility, notably a requirement to have earned a certain amount of money in the past four quarters. And that could leave lots of folks out.
It starts with a requirement to have earned the equivalent of the minimum wage for at least 390 hours in at least one of the last four quarters. That translates out currently to $4,680.
So someone at a minimum-wage job of $12 an hour would have needed to work at least 30 hours each and every week during the quarter to qualify. An individual whose highest quarterly earnings don't reach that level is ineligible.
But it's a bit more complex that that. For the other three quarters, the total wages earned would have to total $2,340 for the entire period.
There is an alternate way to qualify: Earn at least $7,000 combined in at least two of the last four quarters, with wages in one of these equal to or greater than $5,987.50.
Those same numbers even apply to tipped workers who, under state law, can be paid just $9 an hour.
Arizona law does require employers to ensure that each employee's tips bring them up to that $12 figure. But if the company doesn't report that difference, the worker could find himself or herself short of what is needed.
There is a separate federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program which the U.S. Department of Labor said is available for individuals ineligible for regular unemployment compensation. That includes people who are self-employed and those lacking sufficient work history.
A DES spokesman said his agency is still reviewing guidance from the federal government about how that will work.
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Week ending / Initial claims / continued claims
Jan. 4 / 3,132 / 17,991
Jan. 11 / 4,654 / 18,259
Jan. 18 / 4,152 / 18,421
Jan. 25 / 3,475 / 18,401
Feb. 1 / 3,087 / 18,854
Feb. 8 / 3,636 / 18,461
Feb. 15 / 3,538 / 18,516
Feb. 22 / 3,151 / 18,217
Feb. 29 / 3,086 / 18,137
Mar. 7 / 3,357 / 17,593
Mar. 14 / 3,844 / 17,595
Mar. 21 / 29,348 / 18,108
Mar. 28 / 88,688 / 26,381
Apr. 3 / 132,382 / 62,566
Apr. 10 / 95,382 / 164,483
-- Source: Arizona Department of Economic Security
