Predicted -- 800,000 Furloughed Workers Snarling Unemployment Offices; Jobs Numbers Next Week, Following Week Should Be Interesting

From The Wall Street Journal: furloughed workers snarl states' benefit systems.

Applying for jobless benefits is typically a straightforward affair. But it is shaping up to be a mess for 800,000 furloughed government workers and confounding state officials who run the benefit programs.

Applications from federal workers have been flooding state unemployment offices since the shutdown began Tuesday. It will likely be weeks before workers see benefit payments, which would be a small share of what they typically earn.

The flurry is throwing a spotlight onto a complex, little-used program funded by the federal government but administered by states, each of which has its own eligibility rules and compensation levels. The program is operated much in the same fashion as state unemployment insurance programs, except that the benefits are covered by various federal agencies.

Maryland, like other states, suddenly found itself scrambling this week to ramp up staffing to handle federal employees who are blocked by law from returning to work. About 10,600 furloughed federal workers had applied for jobless benefits as of noon Thursday—more than three times as many federal workers as typically apply in an entire year.

"We're overwhelmed," said David McGlone, the Maryland labor department's acting assistant secretary for unemployment insurance. "We're putting in a lot of overtime. We're doing the best we can."

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I might come back to this later, but I have never seen a presidency in my lifetime do so much to screw up this country in such a short time. I assume he will be golfing this weekend.