The spread of the coronavirus across the South and Southwest and into the Plains became apparent in states with statistically significant increases in initial jobless claims during the week ending July 11. … READ MORE >
unemployment
Initial jobless claims: 17 straight weeks above 1 million
Initial jobless claims remain stubbornly elevated, which implies persistent weakness in the domestic labor market as the economy absorbs further intensification of the coronavirus pandemic. … READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims: 50 million and counting
Roughly 50 million Americans have filed first-time jobless claims over the past four months, while for the week ending July 4 an additional 1.31 million have filed for unemployment insurance. … READ MORE >
June U.S. employment report: Encouragement, concern and outright skepticism
Total employment increased by an encouraging 4.8 million workers in June as the U.S. economy continues what will be a multiyear period of recovery in the American labor market. But this is not the time to pull back aid to those out of work. … READ MORE >
U.S. jobs report: Will June data already be out of date by the time it’s published?
We expect an increase of 3.1 million in total employment, led by workers who have been called back to their jobs, and a decrease to 12.2% in the unemployment rate when the jobs data for June is released on Thursday. … READ MORE >
Nine states report significant increases in jobless claims
Nine states reported significant increases in first-time claims for unemployment benefits in the week ending June 20 — a sobering reminder of the ongoing economic toll of the coronavirus. … READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims: Why the wait for further aid?
For the week ending June 20, 1.48 million people filed for first-time jobless claims, while 19.52 million filed continuing claims, the Labor Department reported on Thursday. … READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims are still six times higher than normal
We can add another 1.5 million Americans to the ranks of the newly unemployed. Initial jobless claims for the week ending June 13 are six times higher than the five-year average of 240,000 prior to the coronavirus pandemic. And in the 13 weeks since the shutdown of the economy, state … … READ MORE >
Weekly initial jobless claims: Much-needed context as claims rise by 1.5 million
While the pace of first-time jobless claims has declined over the past few weeks, such an improvement is still akin to saying someone has turned down the heat in hell. It is clear that the U.S. labor market remains impaired as first-time jobless claims increased by 1.5 million for the week ending June 13, and continuing claims advanced by 20.5 million. This is the thirteenth straight week in which claims have increased by more than one million. … READ MORE >
Jobless claims, state by state: Even with overall drop, nine states have big increases
Despite the overall drop in initial jobless claims in the latest week to 1.5 million, there were still nine states that reported significant increases in first-time applications for unemployment benefits. … READ MORE >