US jobless count rises by 3.2 mn

WASHINGTON: Nearly 3.2 million more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, a continued drop from the peak in April but still a record, taking job losses caused by the Covid-19 crisis to 33.5 million. President Donald Trump termed the pandemic the “worst attack” in US history, more severe than the 1942 Pearl Harbor strikes and the 9/11 terror attacks.

Before March, when the pandemic hit US hard, unemployment benefits claims were 700,000 a week, worst in decades.

The cumulative figure for April, to be released on Friday, is expected to be far grimmer, wiping out job gains of several decades. Layoffs started in midMarch as the country began to be shut down state-wise. Restaurants, theatres, malls and salons were shuttered, manufacturing slowed and travel and hospitality industries were crippled.

New research released on Wednesday by Hamilton Project showed unprecedented levels of food insecurity in the US. One in five children are not getting enough to eat, it found.

At least 42 states have opened up or eased restrictions to varying degrees in recent days.

Trump, who has cheered on the reopening, expressed growing frustration with the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus. “We went through the worst attack we’ve ever had on our country,” he told reporters. “This is worse than Pearl Harbor. This is worse than the World Trade Center.”

US deaths shot up by 2,367 in the past 24 hours and infections spiked by 24,254. Meanwhile, a personal valet to Trump has tested positive, but the White House said the American president and vice-president Mike Pence have since tested negative.