FOX Business’s Cheryl Casone breaks down the latest numbers of initial jobless claims.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment aid remained historically high last week, suggesting that employers continue to cut jobs as a resurgence of the coronavirus threatens to derail the recovery in the economy.
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The latest figures from the Labor Department’s unemployment claims, which cover the week ending July 11, show that 1.3 million workers sought unemployment help last week, bringing the total number up since the shutdown began further. of 51 million. It is the 17th week in a row that jobless claims reached more than 1 million; Before the pandemic, the record was 695,000 set in 1982.
Still, though just under the previous week, new claims are noticeably lower than they were in mid-March, when they peaked at nearly 7 million.
The resurgence of infections and new closure measures in several US states, including Florida and California, have fueled fears that the economic recovery is stagnating.
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“Initial jobless claims were relatively unchanged last week, showing the job market slowed from its recovery process,” said Scott Murray, a financial economist at Nationwide. “Massive gains in several states where new COVID-19 cases are on the rise offset the improvement in reopening of the regions. As consumers and businesses adjust to renewed concerns about the spread of the virus, the activity of claims should remain volatile. “
Some states have come to a halt in their plans to reopen, while others, including California, are re-imposing restrictions they had previously lifted. As a result, the number of applications for unemployment assistance that each state saw varied widely.
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These five states saw the biggest increases in jobless claims last week, according to Labor Department data:
- Florida: Increased by 62,467 claims to 129,408
- Georgia: Increased by 31,176 claims to 136,336
- California: Increased by 22,941 claims to 287,732
- Washington: Increased by 12,272 claims to 41,778
- Indiana: Increased by 6,935 claims to 29,037
And these five states saw the biggest decline in jobless claims last week:
- Maryland: Decreased by 14,534 claims to 18,657
- Texas: Decreased by 11,509 claims to 105,590
- New Jersey: Decreased by 10,055 claims to 37,347
- Michigan: Decreased by 9,705 claims to 24,897
- Louisiana: Decreased by 4,605 claims to 26,812
Florida is the second slowest state to recover since the country stopped in mid-March to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, according to data published by WalletHub. The only state that has recovered more slowly than Florida is Georgia, which was one of the first to reopen its economy.
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