833,000 filed for jobless benefits
Labor market faces a ‘long road still ahead’
Nathaniel Gee has been struggling to get by on unemployment aid during the coronavirus pandemic, especially after going five weeks without the $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement.
Gee, who lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was furloughed from his job as a school bus driver in March. He still hasn’t been able to find full-time work with schools doing virtual learning.
He’s worried about how he’ll make ends meet with rent, groceries and medications in the coming months if Congress doesn’t pass another coronavirus relief package soon with extended jobless benefits. The maximum state benefit in Wisconsin is $370, which covers about 40% of Gee’s prior wages, he says.
“It’s been a huge income shock,” says Gee, 37, who tested positive for the coronavirus in July and had lingering fatigue for weeks. “I'm wiped out financially. I'm living on a shoestring budget.”
About 833,352 Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance during the week ending Aug. 29, the Labor Department said Thursday, a 7,591 rise from the prior week and slightly more than the 825,000 expected by economists at J.P. Morgan. Those figures are based on non-seasonally adjusted figures.
The data comes ahead of Friday’s closely watched jobs report for August. Those figures are expected to show that 1.4 million workers returned to work last month, down from 1.5 million in July, according to Oxford Economics. That would leave about one out of two laid-off workers still unemployed. The unemployment rate is expected to
fall to 9.7%, down from 10.2% in July.
To be sure, the labor market has continued to show signs of improvement in recent months, although the pace of progress has likely slowed further from the strong initial bounce in May and June, economists say. A trend of slow improvement is a worrisome sign for the recovery, economists warn.
“This latest report adds to a growing list of indicators pointing towards an overall plateau and a long road still ahead for the labor market,” Daniel Zhao, senior economist at Glassdoor, said in a note.
USA TODAY has chosen to use the non-seasonally adjusted – or actual – claims numbers so it can better compare figures released Thursday, and in the weeks ahead, with previous totals. The non-seasonally adjusted numbers will likely result in fewer claims, which have totaled about 1 million in recent weeks, but that doesn’t reflect the change in the number of claims filed.
Seasonally adjusted, about 881,000 Americans filed first-time applications for unemployment insurance during the week ending Aug. 29, the Labor Department said, a 130,000 drop from the previous week.
“Any stagnation or backpedaling of unemployment claims at such historic highs is severely troubling at this stage of a recovery and will likely remain as recent natural disasters across the U.S. compound with announced layoffs from several large employers,” Zhao says.
Jobless claims remain elevated as more than 25 million unemployed Americans have gone five weeks without the $600 weekly federal unemployment supplement. After aid talks hit a stalemate in Congress, Trump called for a $300-per-week federally funded jobless benefit, with states asked to provide another $100 a week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will run the relief program through its Disaster Relief Fund. But Americans may just get a few weeks’ worth of payments, leaving millions without the additional benefits again in just a matter of weeks, with Congress in recess until after Labor Day. their systems to distribute $300 per week in federal aid to unemployed Americans. So far, only seven – Arizona, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Texas – have paid lost wages assistance as of Wednesday, according to The Century Foundation, a nonprofit think tank.
“The nation remains months or even years away from digging out from our jobs hole, as the absence of fiscal stimulus for state and local governments, small businesses, and households stymies recovery efforts,” Andrew Stettner, senior fellow, said in a note.
Wisconsin, where Gee lives, was approved to provide an additional $300 a week in federal aid for three weeks. But the state warned it could take eight weeks to reprogram the state's unemployment system to disperse the funds, which adds to Gee's concerns about paying rent over the next few months.
“It’s absurd. Now we have to possibly wait two more months before we see as little as three weeks worth of money. I’m angry at Congress for not getting anything done.”