elise gould, thank you very much for joining us. as we said, these numbers are almost imssible to comprehend: 20-some-odd million americans out of work. i mean, how do you put this in some context? do you explain it? what's going on? >> it's a great question. they're devastating numbers, just like those s were devastating that you aired, all those people in so much pain. there e millions of th as you said, there are more than 20 million. think about the economy. outhere are 150 million people working in the economy. that represents one in eight, e more than one ht. if you look around you, more than one in eight workers have now filed for employment insurance. those are devas.tating loss >> woodruff: and you described to us how this is happening in waves, how there was a first wave of people, but now, we are seeing this casce into virtually all sectors of the economy. at first, we saw it mostly in leisure and hospitality, when we t w the tourdustry begin to shut down. now you're seeing it in restaurants, and you're seeing it retail.

it's hard to comprehend figures of this size, so lets get some context from the economist elise gouldeven understand a number like 2a million? it's as if the entire adult population of texas and oklahoma combined, applied for unemployment insurance benefits in the last five weeks!" we can speak to heidi who is a former economist at the department of labour whojoins us former economist at the department of labour who joins us live from california. we are talking about such huge, huge figures. it's very important to remember that behind the stats are individuals, people who have families, who are really struggling. how does unemployment benefits, how do they work? how quickly will these individuals get the money that they need? that's going to vary a lot across different states in this country. this is our unemployment insurance programme, is actually administered at the state level. so there's more than 50 of these programmes and they, have varying degrees of being ready to accommodate a crisis of this magnitude. so what were seeing in many cases is people are getting frozen out. they'

recession it's hard to comprehend figures of this size, so lets get some context from the economist elise gould understand a number like 24 million? it's as if the entire adult population of texas and oklahoma combined, applied for unemployment insurance benefits in the last five weeks! well to explain how quickly individuals will be able to access the financial aid, here's heidi sheer—hols — a former chief economist at the department of labor. our unemployment insurance programmes actually administered at the state level. so there is more than 50 of these programmes and they are, have varying degrees of being ready to accommodate the crisis of this magnitude. so what we're seeing is in many cases people are getting frozen out. they're having to face long delays. which is a real problem. i hope the us really learns the lesson that we need to invest more in these programmes so that were ready in a crisis like this hits. because this is the lifeline for working people who have lost theirjobs through no fault of their own. through a global pandemic. so, it is a shame i think, the fact that we've u