Although the US economy has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks as lockdown restrictions have eased, millions of Americans are still seeking unemployment aid to make ends meet.
New York (CNN Business)Although the US economy has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks as lockdown restrictions have eased, millions of Americans are still seeking unemployment aid to make ends meet.
Another 1.5 million workers filed for first-time jobless benefits last week — a decline of only 58,000 from the week before — the Department of Labor said Thursday. Initial claims have been falling every week since peaking at 6.9 million in the last week of March. Economists think this means that most job losses due to the pandemic are behind us.
But the slowing pace of the decline is disheartening.
First-time claims have been falling every week since peaking at 6.9 million at the end of March, but last week’s decline was by far the narrowest.
Overall, more than 45 million Americans have now filed for first-time benefits since mid-March.
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Stripping out the seasonal adjustments, initial claims stood at 1.4 million last week. These adjustments smooth out the data in normal times but add unnecessary noise in this unprecedented situation.
Continuing claims, which count people who filed for benefits for at least two weeks in a row, stood at 20.5 million, only slightly down from 20.6 million in the prior week.
