As jobless claims soar, millions still await first checks

It's been six weeks since recruiter Lynn Atwood of Lafayette, Indiana, was furloughed along with all her staffing company's employees. She's still waiting for her first unemployment check to arrive.

Atwood belongs to a Facebook group of more than 2,000 Hoosiers who've spent much of March and April expressing their frustrations with hold-ups in collecting unemployment benefits. She initially applied on March 20 and says she hasn't a clue when the money will come. Meanwhile, not too far from her Lafayette home, Simon Property Group plans to reopen the local mall this weekend.

"They're reopening the malls here and we don't even have unemployment money to spend there," Atwood said. "It doesn't make sense."

Atwood lives in one of five states with the worst backlogs of unemployment claims, according to a Century Foundation analysis. Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota and South Carolina each had about 98% of its new unemployment applicants from March still waiting for money when the month ended, the analysis found.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/as-jobless-claims-soar-millions-still-await-first-checks/ar-BB13rqeV?li=BBnb7Kz