There’s no laying off layoffs

Some states ramping up claims

The number of laid-off workers seeking unemployment benefits remained at 1.3 million last week, an historically high level that indicates many employers are still cutting jobs as the coronavirus pandemic persists.

“This is unprecedented,” said Michael W. Klein, the William L. Clayton professor of international economic affairs at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and editor of EconoFact, a nonpartisan website. “It reflects how precipitous the economic decline has been and how the spread of the coronavirus is leading to the continuous weakness of the economy.”

The elevated level of applications for jobless aid is occurring as new confirmed cases of COVID-19 are spiking across much of the Sunbelt, threatening to weaken the economic recovery. Case counts are rising in 40 states, and 22 states have either paused or reversed their efforts to reopen their economies, according to Bank of America.

Rising infections paralleled rising applications for aid in some states getting hit right now, and fell in states with declining infections. In Florida, claims doubled to 129,000, and in Georgia, they rose nearly one-third to 136,000, according to the Labor Department’s Thursday report. In California, they increased 23,000 to nearly 288,000. Applications also rose in Arizona and South Carolina.

Although applications for jobless aid fell by about 10,000 from the previous week, the figure has now topped 1 million for 17 consecutive weeks. The record high for weekly unemployment applications before the pandemic was about 700,000.

The latest unemployment figures come as a recent study conducted by Massachusetts-based American Consumer Credit Counseling found that 22% of consumers have already borrowed from their 401(k) due to COVID-19.

The survey also found that the number of respondents who report zero confidence in the U.S. economy rose from 16% in March to 23% in June. Close to 40% of those in the most recent survey said they have an unhealthy debt-to-income ratio.

GETTY IMAGES EXTENSION SOUGHT: Carlos Ponce joins other demonstrators participating in a protest asking Senators to support the continuation of unemployment benefits on Thursday in Miami Springs, Fla.