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US Unemployment Benefit Claims Jump Sharply

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Unemployment compensation claims jumped sharply in the
   United States last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday,
   as the soaring number of coronavirus cases in the country wreaks havoc
   on the world's largest economy.

   The government said 965,000 workers filed for benefits last week, up
   181,000 from the revised figure of the previous week. It was the
   biggest number of claims in several weeks and followed a report last
   week that U.S. employers cut 140,000 jobs in December, the first drop
   in job growth since the pandemic swept into the U.S. last March and
   April and sent the national economy reeling.

   Now, as President-elect Joe Biden gets set to be inaugurated January
   20, the U.S. economy is facing new headwinds, with tens of thousands of
   people being infected daily and employers confronted with new orders
   from state and municipal officials to restrict business hours or to
   shut down to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

   Until last week, the number of jobless benefit claims had stayed steady
   in the 700,000 to 800,000 range, well below the 6.9 million record
   number of claims filed late last March as the pandemic took hold in the
   U.S. Still, all of the weekly jobless benefit claim figures in the last
   10 months have been above the highest pre-pandemic level in records
   going back to the 1960s.

   The national government has started to make $300-a-week extra payments
   to the jobless on top of less generous state benefits, a stipend that
   will last for 11 weeks. Biden could seek to boost that figure in a new
   relief package he is planning to outline Thursday night.
   But it took months for the outgoing administration of President Donald
   Trump and fractious lawmakers in Congress to reach a deal on a $900
   billion coronavirus relief measure that included the jobless aid,
   suggesting that any new spending might also be tough to negotiate.

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