Claims fall to lowest level amid pandemic

» The number of laid- off Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to approximately 880,000 last week, a sign of possible improvement but evidence that the viral pandemic keeps forcing many businesses to slash jobs.

Colorado officials report that 5,837 people filed new claims for state unemployment benefits during the week ending Aug. 29.

“This is the lowest new regular unemployment claims have been since COVID- 19 hit Colorado in mid- March,” the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment said in a news release.

That 5,831 total represents just 1% of the more than 542,000 regular unemployment initial claims filed during the pandemic.

But there is a problem with the state data from last week. Claims figures for the federally funded Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, program created to help self- employed people, gig workers and others uniquely impacted by the pandemic, is not available because of a “data reporting issue,” according the state labor department.

In recent weeks, that program had been claiming a larger share of new filers, including some people who had exhausted their state benefits and shifted over to the federal program. Since the week of Aug. 1, Colorado had processed nearly 45,000 PUA claims compared with fewer than 33,000 regular UI claims. That regular total includes the more than 5,800 regular claims filed this week.

The PUA program has been plagued by fraud in Colorado and many other states, labor officials say. Personal identifying information obtained during large data breaches in recent years is being used to request payments through the harder- to- certify program, leading to people receiving debit cards for benefits they never requested.

The state labor department expects the data reporting issued to be cleared up next week and new PUA numbers to be available Sept. 10.

More than 281,000 people filed continuing claims for support in Colorado last week, demonstrating that even as new claims slow down, a sustained, high number of people are in need of ongoing financial support.

The latest national figures, released Thursday by the U. S. Department of Labor, suggest that nearly six months after the eruption of the coronavirus, the economy is still struggling to sustain a recovery and rebuild a job market that was devastated by the recession. In the previous week, more than 1 million had sought jobless aid.

All told, the government said that 13.3 million people are continuing to receive traditional jobless benefits, up from 1.7 million a year ago.

The approximately 1 million people who keep applying for unemployment aid each week point to a sluggish pace of improvement. Before the pandemic struck in March, the number of people seeking jobless aid had never topped 700,000 in a week, not even during the depths of the 2007- 09 Great Recession. The economy has recovered 9.3 million, or only 42%, of the jobs that were lost in March and April.

On Friday, when the government issues the jobs report for August, it’s expected to report that employers added about 1.4 million jobs last month. That would still leave the economy 13 million jobs short of the number it’s lost to the pandemic.

Still, the auto and housing industries have made solid gains, bolstered by rock- bottom loan rates. American factories, too, have been on the upswing for three straight months. Yet many companies across the spectrum — from small businesses to hotels, restaurants, airlines and entertainment venues — remain deeply hurt by a loss of customers.

wave of layoff announcements by major companies has heightened concerns that many job losses will end up being permanent. Ford is offering buyouts to try to shrink its U. S. white- collar workforce by 1,400. MGM Resorts is laying off 18,000, about a fourth of its U. S. staff. Coca- Cola, heavily reliant on entertainment venues, is offering buyouts to 4,000.

United and American airlines, hurt by diminished air travel, said they will cut thousands of jobs unless the government provides additional aid to help cover payroll costs. Salesforce is cutting 1,000 jobs, Bed Bath & Beyond 2,800.

Many economists warn that mass layoffs will continue and that any recovery likely will falter as long as the virus rages and Congress doesn’t extend another round of rescue aid for the unemployed and for state and local governments.

The recovery remains fragile because of a still- elevated level of confirmed COVID- 19 cases and the government’s failure to enact another emergency rescue package. The recent expiration of a $ 600- a- week federal jobless benefit has deepened the difficulties for America’s unemployed. The Trump administration is now providing a stripped- down version of that benefit — $ 300 a week — although not all the unemployed will qualify for it.