Few Millionaires
In 2007, so few millionaires collected jobless benefits that the IRS said it refused to publish the data for fear their identities could be detected in violation of confidentiality laws. In 2006, nearly 2,000 households reporting more than $2 million in income claimed jobless benefits, including 15 with incomes above $10 million.
No IRS data are available yet for 2009.
Williams said that in some cases where millionaires claim benefits, the recipient may not be in a high-salary job. For example, a chief executive's spouse may lose a teaching job.
"The teacher may not need the money, but collecting the benefits is different from a laid-off CEO collecting," he said.
Still, Williams said the numbers remind him of stories he heard earlier in his career about movie actors who collected unemployment benefits between pictures.
"These were people comparable to your millionaires who clearly didn't need the money but collected it nonetheless," he said.