The disconnect between the official unemployment figures and the number of benefit recipients underscores an often-overlooked fact: Being counted as unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits are two completely different things, and one doesn’t necessarily have much to do with the other.
How many people are unemployed in United States?
Overall, about 29% of unemployed Americans, or 2.1 million out of 7.37 million, received benefits in March, according to our analysis. The vast majority of those 2.1 million got their payments through states’ regular unemployment insurance programs.
