Joblessness continues to run rampant in the United States, with 1.11 million Americans filing new unemployment benefits claims for the week ending August 15. It was the first increase in jobless claims in three weeks.
The Department of Labor on Thursday said it received 971,000 claims during the prior week of August 8. It had projected 920,000 claims for the week ending August 15. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 925,000 claims.
Labor department data also shows the August 15 total for new claims was well above the pre-pandemic record high of 665,000 from March 2009 at the height of the Great Recession, which began in late 2008.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in late January, new weekly jobless claims were consistently below 250,000. Since the week ending March 20, however, 57.4 million Americans have filed new unemployment insurance claims. This means 37 percent of the total U.S. labor force of 157 million – or one in three Americans -– remains unemployed.
The unexpected jump in the number of unemployed Americans last week surprised economists, who said it might be due to the end of the $600 free weekly unemployment benefit on July 31. That loss in income has not been replaced due to Congressional bickering.
The U.S. Congress is in recess. Both Republicans and Democrats are expected to hammer out a new coronavirus relief package providing for a weekly unemployment benefit by September.
Most states reported increases in new claims for the week ending August 15. The states hardest hit by the pandemic in terms of new cases and deaths are reporting the largest numbers of new claims.
California again had the highest number of new jobless claims at more than 200,000. With 650,000 total coronavirus cases, California ranks first among states hit hardest by COVID-19. It also has 11,700 deaths, the third highest in the country.
New Jersey, which has the eighth highest number of total cases at 184,000, showed the largest increase of nearly 11,000. Texas, the third hardest hit state with 585,000 cases, filed more than 9,000 new unemployment claims. The U.S. has regained only 9.3 million of the 22 million jobs lost between February and April.
On the other hand, continuing jobless claims continue to decrease. They fell to 14.8 million for the week of August 8, the lowest level since of the pandemic. The drop in continuing claims also brought the insured unemployment rate down to 10.2%, which is the lowest since April.
