Jobless claims increase again in California, U.S.
Unemployment claims in California shot to their highest level in three months, topping 145,000 filings last week, the government reported Thursday.
California workers filed 145,400 initial claims for unemployment during the week that ended April 3, an increase of 39,000 from 106,400 claims filed the prior week, the U.S. Labor Department said.
Nationwide, jobless claims totaled 744,000 during the week ending April 3, up 16,000 from the week before.
California now accounts for 19.6% — about one 1 of every 5 — of the jobless claims being filed in the United States, Labor Department data shows.
The current weekly claims totals in California are the highest they’ve been since the week ending Jan. 9, when workers filed 182,600 initial jobless claims.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits signals many employers are still cutting jobs even as more people are vaccinated against COVID-19, consumers gain confidence and the government distributes aid throughout the economy.
Jobless claims have declined sharply since the virus slammed into the economy in March of last year. But they remain stubbornly high by historical standards: Before the pandemic erupted, weekly applications typically remained below 220,000 a week.
For the week ending March 27, more than 3.7 million people were receiving traditional state unemployment benefits, the government said. If you include supplemental federal programs that were established last year to help the unemployed endure the health crisis, a total of 18.2 million are receiving some form of jobless aid the week of March 20.
More stimulus en route
The Biden administration said on Wednesday that 25 million more stimulus payments worth a total of $36 billion had been sent out to Americans from the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief legislation.
The announcement of a fourth batch of checks was made by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service. It brings to 156 million payments the amount disbursed, with a total value of $372 billion.
The latest payments of up to $1,400 began processing last Friday, with some people receiving direct deposits, Treasury said in a statement.
Yellen wants global tax minimum
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday urged the adoption of a minimum global corporate income tax, an effort to offset any disadvantages that might arise from the Biden administration’s proposed increase in the U.S. corporate tax rate.
Citing a “thirty-year race to the bottom” in which countries have slashed corporate tax rates in an effort to attract multinational businesses, Yellen said the Biden administration would work with other advanced economies in the Group of 20 to set a minimum.
“Competitiveness is about more than how U.s.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Yellen said in a virtual speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods.”
The speech was Yellen’s highest-profile so far on international affairs, and came just as the spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund began in a virtual format.
“It is important to work with other countries to end the pressures of tax competition and corporate tax base erosion,” Yellen said.
President Joe Biden has proposed hiking the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%, partially undoing the Trump administration’s cut from 35% in its 2017 tax legislation. Biden also wants to set a minimum U.S. tax on overseas corporate income, and to make it harder for companies to shift earnings offshore. The increase would help pay for the White House’s ambitious $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal.