1.3 million people seek jobless aid
WASHINGTON » More than 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a historically high pace that shows that many employers are still laying people off in the face of a resurgent coronavirus.
The persistently elevated level of layoffs is occurring as a spike in virus cases has forced six states to reverse their move to reopen businesses. Those six — Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Texas — make up one-third of the U.S. economy. Fifteen other states have suspended their re-openings. Collectively, the pullback has stalled a tentative recovery in the job market and is likely triggering additional layoffs.
Thursday’s report from the Labor Department showed that the number of applications for unemployment aid fell from 1.4 million in the previous week. The figure has now topped 1 million for 16 straight weeks.
Before the pandemic, the record high for weekly unemployment applications was fewer than 700,000.
The total number of people who are receiving jobless benefits dropped 700,000 to 18 million. That suggests that some companies are continuing to rehire workers despite job cuts by other employers.
An additional 1 million people sought benefits last week under a separate program for self-employed and gig workers that has made them eligible for aid for the first time. These figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal variations, so the government doesn’t include them in the official count.
“A full recovery in the labor market is going to be a multiyear process, and we think the resurgence in COVID-19 infections raises the risk that there will be a pause in the progress,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
The Organization for Economic Development, a research organization, projected that the U.S. unemployment rate would stay above 10% during the final three months of the year.
Americans are seeking unemployment aid against the backdrop of a disturbing surge in confirmed viral cases, with increases reported in 38 states.