The U.S. Department of Labor reported on Thursday that the number of first-time jobless claims in the United States increased last week, but it is still close to the low point during the 18-month coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 332,000 unemployed workers applied for assistance-an increase of 20,000 from the revised figure of the previous week. Part of the reason is that the torrential rain brought by Hurricane Ida has caused severe damage to the economy of southern Louisiana, resulting in increased applications for benefits.
Despite this, last month’s unemployment benefits were generally the lowest level since the pandemic swept across the United States in March 2020, although still higher than the 2019 average of 218,000.
Since breaking through 900,000 in early January, the number of initial jobless claims has been steadily but unevenly declining. Applying for unemployment benefits is often seen as the current reading of the country’s economic health, but other statistics are also relevant barometers.
Although the US government said last month that its world’s leading economy had an annualized growth rate of 6.6% between April and June, it only added a disappointing 235,000 jobs in August. Economists said that this number partly reflects the surge in delta mutations of the coronavirus that inhibited employment growth.
Compared with the total increase of more than 2 million in June and July, the number of new jobs has fallen sharply. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, which is still nearly two percentage points higher than before the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
There are still about 8.7 million workers unemployed in the United States. There are nearly 11 million available jobs in the United States, but the skills of available workers often do not meet the requirements of employers, or the job vacancies are not where the unemployed live.
The size of the US economy—nearly $23 trillion—is now surpassing pre-pandemic levels because it is recovering faster than many economists predicted during the worst corporate failures more than a year ago.
How fast the growth rate is still an open question.
For several months, in addition to the usually less generous state aid, the central government has provided unemployed workers with an additional $300 in unemployment compensation every week. But this additional aid has now ended nationwide. Approximately 7.5 million unemployed workers have been affected by the interruption of additional funding.
In addition, the delta variant of the coronavirus poses a new threat to the economy.
In many states, political disputes broke out among conservative Republican governors who refused to implement mandatory mask and vaccination rules in schools and businesses in the state, although some education and municipal leaders advocated for stricter rules to try to prevent deltas. The spread of variants.
US President Joe Biden has ordered employees of companies with 100 or more employees to be vaccinated or tested for coronavirus every week. In addition, he asked 2.5 million national government workers and contractors working for the government that if they have not been vaccinated, they must be vaccinated.
In recent weeks, approximately 150,000 new cases have been detected in the United States every day, and more than 1,500 people die of COVID-19 every day.
Now, more than 65% of American adults have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Overall, 54.1% of the US population of 332 million have been vaccinated.
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