By Thomas Catenacci
Daily Caller News Foundation
The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased
to 965,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects
of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of
Labor.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) figure released Thursday
represented a increase in the number of new jobless claims compared
to the week ending Jan. 9, in which there were 787,000 new jobless
claims
reported. Roughly 18.4 million Americans continue to collect
unemployment benefits, according to the BLS report Thursday.
Economists expected Thursday’s jobless claims number to come
in around 800,000, The Wall Street Journal
reported. New jobless claims
fell below 1 million in the first week of August, which was the
first time the weekly claims had fallen below 1 million since
March.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” Beth Ann Bovino, U.S. chief
economist for S&P Global Ratings, told The WSJ. “We’re
stuck at a level that’s four times where it should be.”
Investors have focused on the passage of the coronavirus relief
bill, according to
CNBC. At the end of December, Congress passed and President
Donald Trump
signed a $900 billion stimulus package, which included direct
payments of $600 and $320 billion in small business support.
The stock market has rallied at record levels since Georgia
Democratic candidates Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock
defeated Republican incumbents Sens. David Perdue and Kelly
Loeffler on Jan. 5, according to
CNBC.
In a sign of slowing economic recovery, the U.S.
lost 140,000 jobs in December, marking the first jobs loss
since April, according to the Department of Labor data released
Dec. 4. U.S. retail sales
plummeted by 1.1% in November even as holiday shopping began, a
Department of Commerce report
showed Dec. 16.
Jobless claims hovered around 200,000 per week before the
pandemic, according to
The WSJ. President Donald Trump
declared a national emergency in March as coronavirus spread
rapidly around the world.
Average coronavirus cases and deaths per million have stayed
elevated for months, according to The COVID Tracking
Project. On Wednesday, the U.S. reported 4,022 new
coronavirus-related deaths and 219,090 new cases while 130,383
Americans remained hospitalized from the virus.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News
Foundation.
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Jobless claims spike to 965,000 following Dem wins in Georgia
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