Jobless claims climb back above 1M
Illinois claims level off for both conventional unemployment and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
Layoffs have persisted and rose back above 1 million last week, dampening hopes for a stronger recovery from the coronavirus economic slowdown. (Shutterstock)
By Ted Cox
New claims for unemployment insurance filed by idled U.S. workers climbed back above 1 million last week in figures released Thursday by the Labor Department.
The department’s weekly unemployment report found that another 1.1 million jobless workers filed for benefits last week. Previously, economists had hailed a drop below 1 million to 963,000 new claims the week before.
Illinois claims declined slightly but remained almost level from the week before for both conventional unemployment insurance and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance offering expanded federal benefits to independent contractors, freelancers, and so-called gig workers. Traditional claims dropped just under 1,000 from just under 23,000 the week before to just under 22,000 last week, while new claims for PUA benefits dropped just 200 from 3,700 to 3,500.
Although the department reported that “the advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 10.2 percent for the week ending August 8, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the previous week's unrevised rate,” CNN stated that the renewed rise in new claims dampened economists’ hope for a stronger recovery from the economic decline brought on by attempt to stem the coronavirus pandemic. According to CNN, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, which determines the national unemployment rate through surveys, closed its survey period last week. The Labor Department works from actual unemployment claims filed by states.
The bureau estimated the July unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, down from 11.1 percent in June, but the persistence of 1 million workers a week losing their jobs dims hopes for the declines to continue when the August unemployment rate is released next month.
Those newly filing for benefits also face the fact that the additional $600 a week allotted to unemployed workers in an earlier federal COVID-19 relief package expired at the end of July, and Congress has not been able to agree with the Trump administration on a subsequent relief bill, although the HEROES Act, which would renew that $600 a week, passed the House in May only to be ignored by the Senate.
The Labor Department did set the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending August 1 at 28 million, a decrease of 200,000 from the previous week, but there were just 1.7 million on unemployment of any kind for the comparable week a year ago.