Unemployment Claims Have Hit Their Highest Levels Since Mid-August

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:16 pm

898,000 new claims for unemployment benefits were filed last week, according to the latest data released by the Department of Labor (DOL). Economists had forecasted roughly 830,000. The total of unemployment claims for the week of October 10 was the highest number since mid-August, a sign that the coronavirus pandemic has continued to hammer the economy.

“Despite the higher than expected total, the level of continuing claims continues to fall at a brisk pace, declining by 1.165 million to just over 10 million. Continuing claims data runs a week behind the headline claims number,” noted CNBC.

“We’re going make the economy stronger than ever before. The best year we’ve ever had was last year. The best year we will ever have is going to be next year and that’s going to bring people together,” President Donald Trump told Trump-transcript-final.pdf Washington Post reporter Marc A. Thiessen in an interview published yesterday.

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Yesterday, the president claimed that a Joe Biden victory in this year’s general election would “destroy our country.

“The policies of the left would unleash an economic disaster of epic proportions,” Trump said.

Economic growth has fallen short of what the president promised four years ago, with the country’s gross domestic product in the first three years of his term has risen by an average of 2.6 percent instead of the 3.5 percent that had been predicted. Employers, affected by the coronavirus pandemic, have cut 10.5 million jobs in the past six months. Annual job growth never reached 2.5 million and dropped by nearly 200,000 in 2019, the year before the pandemic.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.