The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose for the first time in 16 weeks, as new spikes in coronavirus cases undermined the country’s economic recovery.
Weekly initial jobless claims totaled more than 1.4 million for the week ending July 18, according to Labor Department data, bringing the total number of claims to more than 52 million since the coronavirus-related blocks began. in March and marking week 18 in a row that initial claims exceeded 1 million.
Economists surveyed by Refinitiv expected 1.3 million new claims.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE MOVE BY CLICKING HERE
The rise in jobless claims “is a deeply troubling sign as weekly unemployment benefits of $ 600 soon expire for tens of millions of unemployed Americans,” Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao said. “The combined effect of increased layoffs, the expiration of unemployment benefits and the intensification of coronavirus outbreaks sets up a perfect economic storm that could easily derail the incipient recovery of the weakened economy.
The latest data showed some optimistic indications: Continuing claims, a broader category that measures unemployed workers who receive benefits for more than a week, reached nearly 16.2 million for the week ending July 11, the most it drops from April 11 and the first reading below 17 million since then.
“I don’t see a break from the downward trend in unemployment and the upward trend in job creation,” White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow told FOX Business, referring to the decline in continuing claims. . “We are reasonably optimistic about July.”
ACCIDENTS ACCUMULATE AS JOBLESS CLAIMS ARISE BETWEEN THE PEAK OF CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS
However, the total of 1.3 million initial claims from the previous week increased to 1,307 million, and the prospects for the job market have clouded as some states slow down or even reverse course to facilitate refuge requests in the site after a resurgence of coronavirus infections. .
“The outbreaks of the virus in the southwest are still difficult,” said Kudlow. “There are some modest signs of improvement: For example, Arizona calmed down considerably. There are still problems in Texas and California, and I will recognize major problems in the Miami-Dade County, Florida area.”
Still, he said, he believes the United States remains in “a self-sustaining recovery.”