In addition, 954,000 people living in households earning at least $100,000 claimed unemployment benefits after losing their jobs.
Wealthy: 2,362 millionaires claimed unemployment insurance in 2009 (even if none of them were as well-off as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates)
As America suffers the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, it is not surprising to learn that the number of people claiming unemployment benefits has increased dramatically.
But what is a surprise is the number of benefit recipients who live in very wealthy households – nearly 2,400 claimants in 2009 came from households earning $1million or more.
And it is not just the super-rich who are receiving federal unemployment cheques, but the comfortably well-off too – close to 1million households with earnings of at least $100,000 claimed the benefit.
The extraordinary statistics from the Congressional Research Service have prompted some to call on a restriction on the benefits which can be claimed by high earners, according to Bloomberg.
A total of 11.3million people claimed some sort of government unemployment insurance in 2009, according to the report.
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