Seattle mom applying to 150 jobs a week while waiting on unemployment benefits

SEATTLE - Millions of Americans continue going without a job, and for many it’s not for a lack of trying.

Rosa da Silva has been looking for a new job since she was laid off in March due to the coronavirus. She had just been hired for Dave and Busters as a corporate sales manager, and in her first week of work that’s when the pandemic shut everything down.

“I literally applied for I think 150, maybe even 200 jobs just last week like on my phone,” said da Silva.

The mom of three said she’s cleared out all her assets and her retirement funds to make ends meet, but the bills are still piling up.

“I’m not able to pay my rent. My rent is behind by about $9,000 now,” said da Silva.

She’s been applying for unemployment benefits every week. In the beginning, she didn’t receive any payment for six months, then it was given to her all at once in backpay.

“If I hadn’t have paid all of that money towards my rent, that when I did get it, I would be like 15-20-30 thousand dollars in rent debt,” said da Silva.

Weekly unemployment benefits started coming in regularly, then the Employment Security Department (ESD) cut her payments off again.

“I think there’s a lot of people trying to do a class action suit which I think is necessary. I think this is the most absurd thig I’ve ever had to deal with,” said da Silva. “Am I going to be homeless when this is all done and the moratorium is over? What’s going to happen with me and my kids?”

Da Silva is currently waiting after filing an appeal with ESD. She hopes federal lawmakers speed up negotiations on a second stimulus package.