Comprehensive Unemployment insurance (UI) systems are the foundation of economic infrastructure and recovery. A robust UI system supports workers through periods of unemployment, encouraging a healthy workforce that allows individuals to find quality jobs with good benefits while ensuring that our economy grows.

The pandemic exposed vulnerabilities in our UI system, and when benefits were cut in early September, millions were left to fend for themselves. Since the end of pandemic-related UI programs, job growth has slowed, and unemployment rates of Black and Latinx communities remain elevated, with Black workers still facing unemployment rates almost twice as high as white workers.

Our UI system is deeply flawed, falls short of meeting its intended purpose, and has proven to respond poorly in the face of a global pandemic. If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it's that economic recovery relies heavily on our UI system.

Unemployment in the US fails to serve workers, responds too slowly to economic shifts, and sets incentives for employers and states to undermine the program's integrity. As states have jurisdiction to set rules, they regularly set benefits too low and cut them within a brief timeframe. Additionally, states can set exclusionary eligibility rules, which has the added effect of excluding part-time workers and furthering racial disparities.

Last month, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden from Oregon introduced the Unemployment Insurance Improvement Act. The act would dramatically reform and improve our UI system for all states by:

• Guaranteeing 6 months of UI coverage;
• Modernizing the application process by allowing states to accept online applications while ensuring the application process is mobile friendly and accessible in multiple languages;
• Expanding coverage to part-time workers;
• Lowering the income threshold for qualification of UI benefits;
• Ensuring states are not able to shortchange workers by determining eligibility based on old wage records;
• Requiring employers to provide information regarding unemployment compensation claim-filing to employees upon separation from employment.

Today, millions are behind on rent, utility bills, and have accrued high-interest debt just to stay afloat - all of which could have been prevented if our UI system functioned to meet its intended purpose. We have to act now, as our current crisis plunges more working families into economic turmoil and hardship.

Sign the petition: Congress must include the Unemployment Insurance Improvement Act in the budget reconciliation bill.

Participating Organizations
Civic Shout
Coalition on Human Needs
Daily Kos
The Juggernaut Project
Lede Progress
National Employment Law Project
Voter Action Project