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Another 1.4 Million US Workers File for Jobless Benefits

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Another 1.4 million laid off U.S. workers filed for
   unemployment compensation last week, the first time since March the
   figure had risen from the previous week, the Labor Department reported
   Thursday.

   The newest figure is a sign the world's biggest economy is struggling
   to regain its footing in the face of a new surge in the coronavirus
   pandemic in the U.S. that President Donald Trump acknowledged this week
   is likely to get worse before it gets better.
   The single-week high of 6.9 million claims came in March, but the
   recent four-week rolling average of nearly 1.4 million claims a week
   remains historically high.
   In all, the government said about 16.2 million workers remain
   unemployed even as millions of workers have returned to their jobs. A
   total of 52.4 million workers have collected jobless benefits at some
   point in the last four months.
   The unemployment benefit claim figures since mid-March have been
   staggering, easily topping the 695,000 total in one week in 1982 that
   had been the highest on record until the coronavirus pandemic swept
   into the United States.
   Millions of the unemployed have returned to work, but those still left
   without work are facing new financial difficulties, with the national
   government's $600-a-week boost to less generous state unemployment
   benefits set to expire in a week. In addition, economic experts say
   employers have cut millions of jobs from their ledgers, leaving
   one-time workers with nothing to return to, or have permanently closed
   their businesses.
   The White House and Congress are considering what additional aid
   laid-off workers should get from the federal government, but no
   decisions have been reached yet. An additional boost to the U.S.
   economy is likely, but Republican lawmakers want to limit the total to
   about $1 trillion, while Democrats are pushing for about $3 trillion.
   Smaller federal unemployment benefits -- such as $200 to $400 a week on
   top of less generous state assistance -- are possible beyond the end of
   July, but no number has been set or a date for how long it would
   extend.
   Trump wanted a temporary end to the 7.65% payroll tax U.S. workers pay
   to support payments to older Americans and help pay for their health
   care. But his Republican cohorts in the Senate dropped it from their
   proposal, with many opposed because the tax cut would only benefit
   those who are working, not the unemployed who currently have no
   earnings to tax.

   Congress could also send another round of $1,200 stimulus payments to
   most taxpayers, even as some Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns
   about the country's ever-increasing national debt that now totals more
   than $26 trillion. Some lawmakers have called for incentive payments to
   returning workers, some of whom have collected more in unemployment
   benefits than from their earnings while working.
   The number of new U.S. coronavirus cases has surged to an average of
   66,000 a day and nearly 4 million total. Trump, facing a difficult
   re-election contest in November against former Vice President Joe
   Biden, said the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. "will probably,
   unfortunately, get worse before it gets better." But Trump says the
   economy will regain strength later this year and into 2021.

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