Another 861,000 Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week
Number of Americans filing for unemployment claims each week has remained stubbornly high
The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits climbed again last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the labor market and trigger a high number of job losses.
Figures released Thursday by the Labor Department show that 861,000 Americans filed first-time jobless claims in the week ended Feb. 13, higher than the 765,000 forecast by Refinitiv economists. Last week's figure was revised upward by 55,000 to 848,00, the Labor Department said.
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The number of Americans applying for aid has remained stubbornly high for months, hovering around four times the pre-crisis level, although it's well below the peak of almost 7 million that was reached when stay-at-home orders were first issued in March. More than 70 million Americans, or about 40% of the labor force, have filed for unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
Continued claims, or the number of Americans who are consecutively receiving unemployment benefits, fell to 4.49 million, a decline of about 64,000 from the previous week. The report shows that roughly 18.3 million Americans were receiving some kind of jobless benefit through Jan. 30, a decrease of about 1.32 million from the previous week.
Many more Americans are receiving jobless aid from two federal programs that Congress established with the passage of the CARES Act in March: One extends aid to self-employed individuals, gig workers and others who typically aren't eligible to receive benefits, and the other provides aid to those who have exhausted their state benefits.
"We may be eventually on the verge of a kind of shoulder, or transition, season for the economy in the coming months as the pandemic eases, more vaccines are administered, and consumers increase spending followed by a pick-up in hiring," said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. "The possibility becomes more probable when and if further economic relief legislation is approved, following up on the better-than-expected January retail sales figures spurred in part by $600 stimulus payments."
The federal government renewed those programs at the end of December with the passage of a $900 billion relief package, which includes a supplemental $300-a-week jobless benefit, a one-time $600 stimulus check for most adults and new funding for a small business rescue program.
But those benefits expire in mid-March and could leave more than 11 million Americans without an income, according to a new report released by The Century Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank.
"The jobless benefits passed in the December stimulus package are responsible for lifting more than 7 millions Americans out of poverty in January, but Americans will need strong unemployment benefits to be in place through at least the end of September if they are to weather the storm of the pandemic," the report said.
Congressional Democrats are rushing to pass President Biden's nearly $2 trillion relief package before that deadline using a process known as budget reconciliation, which will allow them to approve the legislation without any Republican buy-ins.
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A draft proposal released by the House Ways and Means Committee last week includes extended unemployment benefits at $400 a week through August and a third stimulus check worth $1,400 for Americans earning less than $75,000 a year.