$1.9 Stimulus Bill and Unemployment Numbers in Illinois
President Joe Biden signed the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” legislation into law on March 16th 2021, providing millions of Americans with crucial economic relief. The 10.1 million unemployed being the most vulnerable and in dire need of this stimulus.
In 2020 of last year, America saw an unemployment increase of 3.8 percent in Feb. to 13.0 percent in May. This jump being greater than those of the Great Recession, when the number of unemployed increased by 8.8 million from the end of 2007 to the beginning of 2010.
The number of people unemployed in Illinois peaked in April of last year at 996,478 after the WHO officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Despite witnessing 523,493 fewer people unemployed during the first month of 2021, the state’s unemployment rate was still 1.4 percentage points higher than the national rate.
The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) reported 57,483 new unemployment claims were filed in just the first two weeks of March. To compare that, Illinois only seen 8,727 claims around the same time last year, that’s a 559% increase.
For the state of Illinois, approximately 7.6 million adults will qualify for stimulus relief checks, with up to $10,200 in unemployment benefits also now tax exempt, according to the senators. An additional 2 million Illinois residents will also see an increase in SNAP benefits.
Check out the graphic below and some of Illinois’ unemployment stats.
