Fox Business reported that 1.48 million Americans filed unemployment claims last week:
Another 1.48 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, signaling a slow economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and related lockdown as layoffs remain historically high, even as many businesses have reopened.The latest jobless claims figures from the Labor Department, which covers the week ended June 20, pushes the number of job losses since the shutdown began to around 47 million.Economists surveyed by Refinitiv forecast 1.3 million. The previous week’s number was revised up by 32,000 1.54 million.
The number has been over a million for 14 weeks in a row. Those who remain on unemployment went down to 19.5 million, but that number has not budged in a few weeks:
The numbers remain at historically high levels, even as every U.S. state begins to gradually ease restrictions on residents and allows businesses to reopen. It’s the 14th week in a row that jobless claims came in above 1 million; before the pandemic, the record high was 695,000 set in 1982.Still, it marks the 12th straight weekly decline of Americans seeking jobless benefits since claims peaked at close to 7 million at the end of March as the virus forced an unprecedented shutdown of the nation’s economy. Continuing claims, the number of people receiving benefits after an initial week of aid, fell by 767,000 to 19.52 million.
Layoffs have slowed down, but hiring has not picked up that much as the pandemic winds down. America has seen a spike of coronavirus cases in a few states, which could stall the process of reopening the economy:
“We’re seeing a slowdown in layoffs, but hiring hasn’t picked up a tremendous amount,” said Nick Bunker, economist at the job site Indeed. “The recovery from this is going to potentially be a very long slog if we can’t get the virus under control quickly.”States where the coronavirus is spreading the most are experiencing a slowdown in economic activity, according to Jefferies. Some states, such as Arizona, Texas and Utah, are seeing contractions in activity, Jefferies added.
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