It’s becoming clear that the improvement in the pace of firings has stalled as states continue to work through backlogs of claims for unemployment insurance and as filings for federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance increase.
The 837,000 first-time filings remain well above historical norms.
There were 837,000 initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 26, and 1.487 million if one includes the 650,000 first-time claims for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
These figures remain well above historical norms and anything observed during the Great Financial Crisis. Continuing claims totaled 11.7 million, implying an insured unemployment rate of 8.1%.
Given that the protections for workers at firms that received aid under the CARES Act early in the pandemic expired on Sept. 30, policymakers and investors should anticipate a new round of fresh, and permanent, layoffs in the aviation, leisure and hospitality sectors as well as in energy and banking, to mention a few.
There are now 26.5 million people receiving unemployment insurance. Inside that total, the number of those on the federal PUA program actually increased from 11.51 million to 11.82 million.
For more information on how the coronavirus is affecting midsize businesses, please visit the RSM Coronavirus Resource Center.
