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US Unemployment Benefit Claims Dip Slightly

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - The [1]U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday that
   860,000 workers filed for unemployment compensation last week, a slight
   improvement from the week before but an indication that the coronavirus
   pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the American economy.
   Millions of workers remain unemployed in the United States, with the
   unemployment rate at 8.6% in early September, and economists saying the
   jobless figure could remain elevated for months. Only about half of the
   22 million U.S. jobs lost in the pandemic have been recovered, with the
   world's biggest economy adding 1.4 million jobs in August.
   Weekly initial claims for jobless benefits seemed to have stabilized
   somewhat below 900,000 in recent weeks. Last week's 860,000 figure was
   down 33,000 from the week before.
   The recent weekly claims figures are well below the 6.9 million record
   number of claims filed in late March as the coronavirus swept into the
   United States but remain above the highest level before this year in
   records going back to the 1960s.

References

   1. https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OPA/newsreleases/ui-claims/20201770.pdf

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