1,186,000 unemployment claims were filed in the week ending on August 1, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
The report came after $600 extra weekly unemployment benefits from the federal government’s first COVID-19 relief package expired last week.
Negotiations over the next stimulus bill have stalled as Democrats propose to extend the $600 weekly payments while Republicans push to reduce the benefits to $200 a week.
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Winning!
The US is particularly vulnerable to covid damage. It lacks a functioning public health strategy beyond random acquisition of herd immunity and its economy is heavily services based. The Economist suggested in April that the advanced industrial countries were moving to a 90% economy that will have knock-on effects in supplier emerging economies like China by lowering export demand. Sure, many furloughed workers will eventually get back to work, but those in the shadow, or under-the-table, economy and perhaps a third of formal service economy workers won’t. We’ve begun a game of musical chairs with some serious chair removal.
So things are getting worse slightly more slowly. (New claims get filed even in a healthy economy, but in a healthy economy well under 300K.)
My granddaddy used to say “things will get bad before they get worse.”
The difference between last week and this week represents statistical noise. The number fluctuated from 1,434,000 last week to 1,186,000 this week. The tragedy of this situation is expressed in two pictures.
Continuing claims stand at 32,118,678, an increase of 1,302,816 from the previous week.
The enhanced unemployment benefit of an additional $600 per week means that tens of millions of people could struggle to meet their basic needs.