Digits: New applications for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to an epidemic low, but the overall decline was a big change in how data is reported rather than finding more people in jobs. No progress has been made in the absence of change in the labor market.
Initial job claims fell 1,100,000 in the last week of August to 8,811,000 as per the season, the Labor Department said on Thursday. These figures reflect the applications traditionally filed by state unemployment offices.
Economists released by Marketwatch forecast 940,000 new claims in the seven days ended August 29. Not all forecasts, however, take into account changes in government formulas for seasonal adjustments.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said last week it would change its adjustment process to make the report more accurate. The level of new claims, arranged according to the season, is significantly higher than the actual or actual number of people applying for benefits each week, a problem that has become more apparent in recent months.
The new method began with this week’s report. BLS does not plan to revise previous data to reflect its new statistical approach.
For a full explanation, read about the big change in job claims
The uncontrolled or actual number of claims gaining new employment, meanwhile, indicates that there has been hardly any change in the past week in how many people are applying for benefits. They rose slightly to 833,352 from 825,761. It was the fifth straight week in which unskilled claims have fallen below 1 million.
By any measure, however, job claims are still high. They rushed into the lower 200,000 and were standing close to a half-century low just before the coronavirus epidemic broke out.
Also: Do expired 600 federal unemployment benefits prevent people from going back to work?
what happened: New jobless claims are highest in California (40,000), with small increases in Texas and Louisiana. Notably, they landed in Florida and Georgia, which reported a large increase in coronavirus cases in early summer.
Adding to the number of self-employed workers who filed under a separate federal program, in the last week or so, were real or unreported new claims of 1.59 million. It showed a significant increase from 1.43 million in the previous week.
Claims of continuous employment, or people are already receiving benefits, which was 14.49 million in the week of August 22, compared to 13.25 million arranged according to. The raw or actual number was a little low.
Together, the number of people benefiting from the eight state and federal programs has risen from 27 million in the previous week to 29.2 million as of August 27. Data is released with a two-week delay.
To read: ADP says private sector added 428,000 new jobs less than expected in Gust
Big picture: The big wave of people returning to work in early summer seems to have turned into more trouble, making it harder for the economy to recover.
Some companies lay off more workers permanently or warn that they could do so if the sale does not come soon or until the government comes to their rescue again.
Read:The economy softened in August as some temporary layoffs became permanent
The peculiarities of the second government’s financial securities are not soon favorable. Weekly federal benefits for the unemployed benefited by an additional 600 600 in late July, and a program that pays small businesses to keep failed employees on their payroll as Democrats and Republicans disagree on other aid packages. Both sides have not had a very recent trend.
What do they say? “The data show that layoffs remain widespread and recovery in the labor market is taking a disappointingly slow pace,” said Nancy Vanden Huten, lead U.S. economist at Oxford Economics.
Market Response: Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
And S&P 500 SPX,
Thursday was set to open mixed in business.
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