49.8M Americans filed jobless claims in 16 weeks

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits continues to dwindle yet remains remarkably high as reopened businesses shut their doors amid spikes of the coronavirus.

Last week, 1.3 million workers filed first-time claims for unemployment insurance, the Labor Department said Thursday. That latest round of applications means roughly 49.8 million Americans have made initial jobless benefits claims in 16 weeks.

Initial jobless claims are the nation’s most reliable gauge of layoffs, and there has been progress. About 1.43 million sought such aid the previous week, and the latest number marks the 14th week in a row that initial claims have declined.

It also is the 16th week in a row that first-time applications for unemployment hovered above 1 million.

The high number of jobless claims punctures the positive news last week that the U.S. economy added a record 4.8 million jobs in June as states allowed more businesses to reopen and a growing number of Americans returned to work. The jobless rate fell to 11.1% from 13.3% in May, the Labor Department said.

The economy has suffered a net loss of 14.7 million jobs during the downturn sparked by the pandemic, and the data for the most recent monthly jobs report was collected in mid-June before a spike in virus cases in dozens of states.

“Initial state claims have barely budged over the past month, and are only 16% lower than on June 6,” Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, said in a statement. “Equally concerning, initial state claims increased in 23 states last week, including those with major virus spikes, such as Texas and Louisiana.”

The number of those receiving benefits for consecutive weeks is dropping, to 18.06 million for the week that ended June 27, which confirms “that some rehiring continues to occur,” Oxford Economics said in an investors note.

“Still, the number of individuals collecting regular state benefits is nearly three times the Great Recession peak,” the note continued. “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.”

“The number of individuals collecting regular state benefits is nearly three times the Great Recession peak.” Oxford Economics in an investors note