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In fact, household participation has been climbing so steadily that it has far surpassed the last peak set as a result of the immediate fallout following hurricane Katrina.
The latest data released by the Department of Agriculture shows that, on a year-over-year basis, household participation has increased 20.28% while individual participation, as a ratio of the overall population, has increased 16.50% over the same period.
The June results confirm that participation is continuing to climb, likely as a result of the jump in total unemployment, driving the nominal benefit costs up an lofty 17.73% on a year-over-year basis to $5,504,541,352 for the month.