During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government expanded the unemployment insurance (UI) system in unprecedented ways, stabilizing individual households and the U.S. economy during a global pandemic, and jumpstarting the economic recovery. However, this significant federal intervention was needed because, under normal circumstances, our UI system fails to cover enough workers, pay out sufficient benefits, and meaningfully connect displaced workers with new opportunities for training and employment. If the existing system had remained in effect during the pandemic, it would have failed to achieve its central aims of stabilizing individual households through temporary job loss, and the macro economy during economic downturns.

To ensure the lessons learned during the pandemic are not lost, the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy is hosting a two-day virtual symposium on June 16 and 17 with participation by some of the nation’s leading experts on our UI system. Participants will discuss the critical challenges facing our UI system, including the appropriate roles for the federal and state governments, ensuring adequate benefits and coverage for more workers, the role of the UI system in training and retraining workers, and how to properly fund this vital social and economic system.

The symposium will be chaired by Sandy Levin, who has continued his three decades of work on UI in Congress as the Distinguished Policymaker in Residence at the Ford School. Professor Luke Shaefer, director of Poverty Solutions, will join Sandy in leading the event.