The federal government is funding 13 additional weeks of unemployment benefits after state payments run out, but getting them can take extra effort.

In parts of the South Bronx, the unemployment rate was estimated to be nearly 30% in August. Nationwide, it’s a little less than 8%.

For many of those who have now gone months without a paycheck or unemployment, things are dire.

The adjustments smooth out predictable changes in employment, but the pandemic economy has broken them.

Let’s do the numbers … but with more context.

Jordan Wirfs-Brock “sonified” data from unemployment claims to give us another way to process historic job losses.

Some people haven’t applied for unemployment because they don’t think they qualify, and others can’t get through the application process.

Jobless claims have hit 26 million since the COVID-19 crisis started.

In the space of four weeks, about 22 million Americans have filed jobless claims.

Some states like California, New York and Texas could see their unemployment funds running low.