Joanie Courtney, chief analyst at EmployBridge’s workforce, in the January employment report amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment insurance for the first time increased last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to trigger a high number of layoffs.
Figures released on Thursday by the Labor Department show that 793,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits for the first time in the week ending February 6, up from the 757,000 predicted by Refinitiv economists.
The number remained stubbornly high for months, hovering around four times the pre-crisis level, although it is well below the peak of almost 7 million that was reached when requests to stay at home were first issued in March. Nearly 70 million Americans, or about 40% of the workforce, applied for unemployment insurance during the pandemic.
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Continuing claims, or the number of Americans receiving consecutive unemployment insurance, fell to 4.54 million, a decline of about 145,000 from the previous week. The report shows that some 20.4 million Americans were receiving some form of unemployment benefit as of January 23, an increase of about 2.5 million over the previous week.
Many more Americans are receiving unemployment benefits from two federal programs that Congress established with the approval of the CARES Act in March: one extends aid to self-employed individuals, temporary workers and others who are not normally eligible for benefits, and the other provides aid to those who have exhausted their state benefits.
The federal government renewed these programs in late December with the approval of a $ 900 billion aid package, which includes a $ 300 weekly unemployment benefit, a $ 600 single stimulus check for most adults and new financing for a small business rescue program.
Congressional Democrats, who saw emergency aid as just the beginning of relief efforts, are moving forward with the approval of a nearly $ 2 trillion stimulus package with no Republican buy-in.
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A draft proposal launched by the House Means and Resources Committee this week includes extended unemployment benefits of $ 400 a week through August and a third $ 1,400 stimulus check for Americans earning less than $ 75,000 a week. year.
If lawmakers do not grant unemployment benefits, 11.4 million Americans will lose their benefits on March 14, according to a new report released on Wednesday by The Century Foundation, a non-partisan study group.
“The unemployment benefits approved in the December stimulus package are responsible for lifting more than 7 million Americans out of poverty in January, but Americans will need strong unemployment benefits in place until at least the end of September if they are to resist. to the pandemic storm, “said the report.
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