Another 1 million Americans claimed benefits for unemployment insurance last week

Continued unemployment claims, which count for people to submit at least two weeks in a row, stood at a seasonally adjusted 14.5 million.

Without seasonal adjustments, which smooth the data in normal times, but are a distortion in the pandemic, the picture looks somewhat different, but not necessarily better: first unjustified claims stood at 821,591 last week. But in addition, 607,806 Americans – more than in the previous week – have filed claims for pandemic unemployment assistance, one of the programs that Congress proposed to help workers who do not have access to regular government programs, such as their own boss. That brings the total of unadjusted initial claims to 1.4 million.

Altogether, 27 million American workers applied for some form of unemployment assistance under various government programs during the week ending August 8, representing a reduction of about 1 million claims – but still marking this banking crisis in full force.