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US Unemployment Benefit Claims Remain High

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Unemployment compensation claims remained elevated in the
   United States last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported Thursday,
   as the soaring number of coronavirus cases in the country continues to
   inhibit the world's largest economy.
   The government said 900,000 workers filed for benefits last week, down
   26,000 from the revised figure of the previous week.
   Now, as President Joe Biden starts his first days in office, 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.
   Two weeks ago, the government reported that U.S. employers cut 140,000
   jobs in December, the first drop in job growth since the pandemic swept
   into the country last March and April and sent the national economy
   reeling.
   For weeks, the number of jobless benefit claims had stayed steady in
   the 700,000 to 800,000 range until the two most recent reports, all of
   which are still 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, as part of his proposed $1.9-trillion
   coronavirus relief package, is trying to boost that stipend to $400 a
   week through September.
   Biden has narrow majorities in both the Senate and House of
   Representatives, possibly easing approval of his relief plan, but only
   if Democrats vote as a bloc or the president can convince some
   Republican lawmakers to support it.
   However, it took months for the administration of former President
   Donald Trump and fractious lawmakers in Congress to reach a deal on a
   $900 billion coronavirus relief measure that included the $300-a-week
   jobless aid, suggesting that any new spending might also be tough to
   negotiate.

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