Over 30 million people in the United States  have lost their jobs and are filing for unemployment due to Covid-19. The process to file for unemployment might be easy for some, but it leaves many San Luis Obispo High School students wondering, is it worth the time and energy to file for unemployment? 

  The benefits for unemployment due to Covid-19 are without a doubt worth it. The money a person would be regularly making is given and on top of that people are receiving $600 a week.

The Employment Development Department, (EDD),  has also relieved some of the requirements by not enforcing the unemployed to look for work, due to the large amount of filed unemployment claims and the website continuing to crash.

Each week as well as those can file who are freelancers and are self employed. It still however, remains to be a time consuming frustrating process. 

  “Filing for unemployment has definitely been stressful but worth it. Once I knew that the Coronavirus 600 was a thing plus I was going to get my claim amount per week, which you can calculate before you actually apply. I was willing to put in the effort. I had my mom help me and we had to do it at odd times of the day since there were so many people on the website that it continually kept crashing. Once I applied I had to confirm my registration and show that I was being active. There was definitely some tears trying to figure it all out but if you stay positive and focused on how to file it will be worth it,” said junior Alexis Haas.  

  Haas brings up a great point, since millions of people are filing for unemployment the website crashes constantly and it can also be a hassle to get in contact with customer service.

Being a student at this time, it is very difficult to balance school while still trying to make money to support oneself.

It is a shame that filing for unemployment is another stressful process that has to be done.