U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for January 28: Unemployment Insurance

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

Profile America — Saturday, January 28th. As the Great Depression approached its worst, Wisconsin made the nation's first governmental direct relief effort for the unemployed. On this date in 1932, it enacted unemployment insurance, soon followed by a half-dozen other states before the Social Security Act in mid-decade moved all states to adopt such programs by 1937. Wisconsin's program issued its first unemployment check in August in the amount of $15. Recent tabulations show that states and local governments take in over $80 billion annually from the payroll tax to fund unemployment insurance. But they spend nearly $96 billion in such assistance. States have $256 billion in combined insurance trust funds, but an aggregate deficit of $18 billion for covering unemployment. Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau. 

Sources: Kane's Famous First Facts, 4525
National response/accessed 11/2/2016: http://www.dol.gov/ocia/pdf/75th-Anniversary-Summary-FINAL.pdf 
State & local unemployment revenue and expenditure/Census of Governments table A-1& 8: http://www2.census.gov/govs/local/summary_report.pdf

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau