Unemployment insurance update. Nearly a month after Washington rushed through emergency pandemic assistance, millions of laid-off workers can't apply or haven't got any money.....

Only 10 states so far have set up the system to process claims and pay benefits to workers not normally covered -- like self-employed, freelancers, part-timers and gig workers...

Those states paying gig workers include Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah.....

44 states have started to send out the $600 supplement to your unemployment benefit -- but people who are only eligible under the new federal rules, and not their existing state guidelines -- they are still waiting....

Only 2 states -- KY and MN -- have started paying the 13 weeks of additional benefits to people who have already exhausted their state's unemployment insurance. That affects people who had been out of work and collecting benefits before the pandemic hit.

Why does this matter? Delays delivering benefits now not only increase immediate hardships, they also affect the shape of the recovery when the pandemic eases.....

“Speed matters” when it comes to government assistance, said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at Northern Trust.
There is “a race between policy and a pandemic,” he said. ...

But Ohio won’t even start processing claims under the expanded federal eligibility criteria until May 15. Pennsylvania hasn't set a target date yet for when benefits might be paid.

As of April 11, 7 out of 10 people who had applied for unemployment insurance since mid-March had started to receive them, according to EPI. That left 7 million still waiting for relief. Since then, millions more Americans have applied.