Texas says its surging unemployment numbers are fake

DALLAS — Something odd has been happening with unemployment claims in Texas. You can see it if you check out the chart for the past year of claims.

After an initial spike in jobless applications in January of this year, the state got into an up-and-down rhythm for many months.

But then…boom!

In the first week of September, though, the state saw its largest weekly batch of unemployment claims not only for this year, but going all the way back to pandemic times in 2021! The report this month showed that Texas had 92% more unemployment claims in the first week of September than it had in the last week of August.

That signals big trouble if it’s true…which the state says…it is not. The Texas Workforce Commission, which handles unemployment claims in Texas, characterizes the recent spike