Unemployment Continues to Rise After Another 1 Million Filed for Benefits Last Week

According to the latest data released by the Department of Labor (DOL), another 1 million American workers filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis. This is the 22nd time in 23 weeks that unemployment claims topped 1 million as the nation struggles economically amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Job claims totaled just over 1 million for the week ending August 22. That’s a decrease from 1.104 million last week. The last time unemployment claims were below 1 million was the week of August 8, when they totaled 971,000.

“Continuing claims continue to drop, but still indicate a highly stressed labor market,†said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Virginia. “Even a 1 million person drop in the total number unemployed isn’t enough — there is a lot of work to be done because 14 million people are still receiving UI assistance of some kind.â€

Continuing claims, the number of people receiving unemployment benefits for at least two straight weeks, have decreased by 223,000 to 14.535 million for the week ending August 15.

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DOL reports that an additional 607,806 people filed for unemployment through the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was created for those who don’t typically receive unemployment, such as the self-employed. Roughly 27 million Americans are unemployment, according to DOL data.



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