Tag: unemployment

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New Unemployment Claims Top 1 Million For 20th Week

From the New York Times:

The government reported on Thursday that nearly 1.2 million workers filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week. It was the lowest weekly total since March, but signaled the continuing damage that the pandemic is inflicting on the labor market.

An additional 656,000 claims were filed by freelancers, part-time workers and others who do not qualify for regular state jobless aid but are eligible for benefits under a separate federal unemployment insurance program, the Labor Department announced on Thursday. Unlike the state figures, that number is not seasonally adjusted.

Although the number of new claims is down from the stratospheric levels reached in the early days of the pandemic, the million-plus tallies that have continued for 20 weeks in a row are still extraordinarily high by historical standards.

Economists estimate 30 million Americans are currently collecting unemployment benefits.

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US Economy Contracts By 32.9% As 1.4 Million New Unemployment Claims Filed

Donald Trump

Donald Trump (image via Flickr/White House)
So. Much. Winning. Remember when Donald Trump predicted ‘only’ 60,000 deaths from COVID-19 and the economy would come roaring back in the summer when the virus magically disappeared? From CNN:

The US economy contracted at a 32.9% annual rate from April through June, its worst drop on record, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said Thursday.

Business ground to a halt during the pandemic lockdown in the spring of this year and America plunged into its first recession in 11 years, putting an end to the longest economic expansion in US history and wiping out five years of economic gains in just a few months.

A recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of declining gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the economy. Between January and March, GDP declined by an annualized rate of 5%.

Additionally, the number of Americans filing first-time unemployment claims rose for the second week in a row. Some 1.4 million people filed for initial jobless claims last week, up 12,000 from the prior week’s revised level, which was the first increase in 16 weeks, according to the Department of Labor. At this writing, 152,074 Americans have died from COVID-19. The U.S. has more than 50% more fatalities from the virus than Brazil which ranks second in the world with 91,263 deaths.

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News Round-Up: July 2, 2020

Some news items you might have missed: • Instagram: If you don’t already, click over and follow @BigKidProblems (above) on the Gram of Insta….I like the way they think 🙂 • Christian Post: A professional photographer has filed a lawsuit against a new Virginia law that he says would force him to violate his sincerely held Christian beliefs by requiring him to provide his services to same-sex weddings. • NBC News: The Trump administration is moving to repeal transgender protections in homeless shelters. If the proposal is implemented, transgender women could be placed in sex-segregated shelters for men. • NY Times: U.S. payrolls grew by 4.8 million in June, according to the Labor Department. It was the second month of gains after a loss of more than 20 million in April when the pandemic put a large swath of economic activity on ice. The unemployment rate fell to 11.1 percent, down from a peak of 14.7 percent in April but still higher than in any previous period since World War II.

(image via NY Times)
• American Journal of Managed Care: A new study of nearly 78,000 HIV+ people diagnosed with coronavirus indicates that antiretroviral therapy (ART) medications may reduce a person’s risk of getting coronavirus and/or reduce the severity of the disease should they contract it. • Hollywood Reporter: Hugh Downs, the congenial broadcaster whose thousands of hours on network television included two decades on the ABC’s  20/20 and 9 years as the host of NBC’s Today Show, has died. He was 99. Downs also hosted the game show Concentration for nearly a decade as well as five years as announcer and side-kick to Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. • Reuters: Democrat Joe Biden edged out Republican Donald Trump in fundraising for a second straight month in June, according to reports from the rival U.S. presidential campaigns. Biden and allied Democratic groups raked in over $141 million during the month, while Donald Trump and closely tied groups hauled $131 million. • Karen Chronicles: A Costco customer refused to wear a face mask while returning an item. So she staged a sit-in. For perspective, the second video shows you how a Black man was treated when he refused to wear a face mask. Please note the difference in how the two were treated.

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News Round-Up: June 11, 2020

Me and my high school buddy Addester Williams at Voodoo in Las Vegas
Some news items you might have missed: • Throwback Thursday: Amid all this turmoil in the country, I loved chatting with my high school doll Addester (above) last night who came to visit Las Vegas in February. A fun night at Chippendales, and then cocktails at VooDoo on the roof of The Rio. #GoodTimes • LGBTQ Nation: In May, haters succeeded in striking down LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections passed by the city of Jacksonville, Florida, on a ‘legislative technicality.’ So, this week the City Council voted to restore those protections – correcting the ‘technicalities’ – by a vote of 15-4. • AP News: In related Jacksonville news, the city has been selected to host the celebration marking President Donald Trump’s acceptance of his party’s nomination for reelection, the Republican National Committee chairwoman said Thursday. • The Advocate: Residents of Ketchikan, Alaska, have rallied around a same-sex couple denied flowers for their wedding by a local florist. Although the couple had wanted to support a local business, they have now ordered flowers from a Safeway supermarket. Supporters of the couple have donated hundreds of dollars to pay for the flowers. The couple plans to give any leftover funds to charity. • The Hill: Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over Donald Trump in Florida, according to a new poll released by Republican polling firm Cygnal on Thursday. The survey shows Biden with 47 percent support among likely voters in the Sunshine State as Trump trails by roughly 3 points at around 44 percent. • CNBC: The Labor Department reports unemployment claims last week totaled 1.54 million. Since the pandemic began, more than 44 million workers have filed claims. • Reuters: The United States surpassed 2 million confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, as rising hospitalizations in states such as Texas, Arizona, and North Carolina prompt fears about reopening the country. The U.S. has now reported nearly 113,000 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Health authorities in Texas on Wednesday reported a record number of COVID-19 hospitalizations for the third consecutive day. #SoMuchWinning  

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Unemployment Rate Soars To Record-Shattering 14.7 Percent

(image via MSNBC)
The U.S. economy lost a mind-blowing 20.5 million jobs in April, a number ten times the previous record and by far the highest seen since the Great Depression. From NBC News:

The unemployment rate soared to 14.7 percent, up from 4.4 percent in March after months at a half-century low, according to the monthly employment report, released Friday by the Department of Labor.

In just over a month, the coronavirus has wiped out all job gains since the Great Recession and brought the country’s decade-long record economic growth streak to an abrupt halt.

April’s staggering jobless total is more than 10 times that of the previous unemployment record of 1.96 million, set in September 1945, when American soldiers returned home after World War II. The new unemployment rate is the worst since the height of the Great Depression, when it hit 24.9 percent.

Applications for unemployment benefits last week totaled 3.17 million bringing the 7-week running tally to 33.5 million

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Trump Wanted To Disperse Unemployment Benefits Via Imaginary Federal System

Donald Trump
Donald Trump took to Twitter today to lay the blame on Democrats for any delays Americans see in receiving additional unemployment funds provided under coronavirus relief legislation. “Blame the Democrats for any ‘lateness’ in your Enhanced Unemployment Insurance,” Trump tweeted. “I wanted the money to be paid directly, they insisted it be paid by states for distribution,” Trump added. “I told them this would happen, especially with many states which have old computers.”

As I’m sure you know, there is no federal system by which unemployment benefits can be paid. All unemployment is paid via each individual state. The $2.2 trillion emergency relief package overwhelmingly passed in Congress last month expanded the size and scope of unemployment benefits, kicking in an additional $600 to weekly unemployment checks. The legislation also expanded benefits to include freelance workers, self-employed and participants in the gig economy. One of the issues delaying these benefits is the fact that states have never paid benefits to those workers, so the sign-up process has required adapting systems in every state. But many people report encounters of crashing systems and busy phone lines as states struggle with unprecedented unemployment levels. CNN reports payments will be applied retroactively for claims starting March 29 in most, if not all, states.

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Another 4.4 Million File For Unemployment Benefits

(graphic via MarketWatch)
The Labor Department reports 4.4 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week marking the fifth straight week of job losses measured in the millions. From MarketWatch:

The spike in unemployment has likely pushed the jobless rate to between 15% and 20%, economists estimate. The only other time in American history when unemployment was that high was in the early stages of the Great Depression almost a century ago.

In less than two months, the pandemic has eliminated all the 23 million jobs created after the 2007-2009 Great Recession.

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6.6 Million New Applications For Unemployment This Week

  From NBC News:

Another wave of 6.6 million American workers filed first-time unemployment claims for the week ending April 4, bringing the cumulative total to an astonishing 16 million over the past three weeks.

For the week ending March 21, 3.3 million people filed new unemployment claims, easily shattering the previous record set in 1982 of 695,000.

Last week, that astounding figure doubled, as 6.6 million people filed claims for the week ending March 28 — a figure that was revised upward to 6.9 million in the new release.

Mark Zandi, a chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, predicts unemployment could reach as high as 15 percent later this spring.

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News Round-Up: April 2, 2020

L-R Pete and Chasten Buttigieg (screen capture)
Some news items you might have missed: • Furball of the Day: Former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg (above) brought #BeardEdgeEdge to reality in a recent Instagram Live broadcast about the coronavirus pandemic sporting a newly-buzzed head and a woofy, scruff-tastic beard. • CNBC: Initial jobless claims for last week surged to more 6.6 million, the Labor Department said Thursday. That brings the two-week total to about 10 million due to the coronavirus-induced economic shutdown. Prior to the COVID-19 catastrophe, the highest week for claims was 695,000 in 1982. #SoMuchWinning • Boy Culture: The Adonis Lounge in NYC is usually very hands-on but the legendary strip joint, featuring the world’s best lap dances, is going hands-off during the COVID-19 crisis by hosting a virtual party on Friday, April 3, at 11 p.m. EST.
(GIF via Giphy)
• NY Post: The MTA and its largest union want bus riders to “cover their noses and mouths with bandanas or scarfs… if they do not have masks.” Listening to medical experts on TV today, my takeaway was that the main point of masks is to keep infected people from spreading the virus to others, not so much protect the wearer of the mask from getting infected. But we’re also now hearing that the virus can be transmitted through not just coughing or sneezing but talking or even just breathing. • Reuters: The U.S. Navy on Thursday relieved the commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote a scathing letter that leaked to the public asking for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard his warship. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Captain Brett Crozier was being relieved not because he wrote the letter and sent it up through the chain of command but because the Navy believes he leaked it to the media. • Cocktail Hour: Food Network star Ina Garten has gone viral with her recipe for the “perfect Cosmopolitan.” This Instagram video has gotten over 2.4 million views in a day. #MyFavoriteThingToday

 

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It’s always cocktail hour in a crisis! Recipe on barefootcontessa.com #staysafe

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Labor Department: Record 3.3 Million File For Unemployment

After much of the country shut down to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Labor Department reports a record 3.3 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. That’s four times the previous record. From the Washington Post:

A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday, as restaurants, hotels, barber shops, gyms and more shut down in a nationwide effort to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Last week saw the biggest jump in new jobless claims in history, surpassing the record of 695,000 set in 1982. Many economists say this is the beginning of a massive spike in unemployment that could result in over 40 million Americans losing their jobs by April.

Laid off workers say they waited hours on the phone to apply for help. Websites in several states, including New York and Oregon, crashed because so many people were trying to apply at once. The nation’s unemployment rate was 3.5 percent in February, a half-century low, but that has likely risen already to 5.5 percent, according to calculations by Gimbel. The nation hasn’t seen that level of unemployment since 2015.

This graphic from NPR shows the dramatic spike in new claims.

(image via NPR)