US jobless claims rose sharply last week as economic crisis grinds on

[WASHINGTON] Applications for jobless benefits resumed their upward march last week as the worsening pandemic continued to take a toll on the economy.

More than 947,000 workers filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was up nearly 229,000 from the week before, reversing a one-week dip that many economists attributed to the Thanksgiving holiday. Applications have now risen three times in the last four weeks and are up nearly a quarter-million since the first week of November.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the week's figure was 853,000, an increase of 137,000.

Nearly 428,000 applied for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a federal programme that covers freelancers, self-employed workers and others who don't qualify for regular state benefits.

Unemployment filings have fallen greatly since the spring, when as many as 6 million people a week applied for state benefits. But progress had stalled even before the recent increases, and with Covid-19 cases soaring and states reimposing restrictions on consumers and businesses, economists fear that layoffs could surge again.

The monthly jobs report released Friday showed that hiring slowed sharply in early November and that some of the sectors most exposed to the pandemic, like restaurants and retailers, cut jobs for the first time since the spring. More up-to-date data from private sources suggests the slowdown has continued or deepened since the November survey was conducted.

Many economists say the recovery will continue to slow if the government does not provide more aid to households and businesses. After months of gridlock in Washington, prospects for a new round of federal help have grown in recent days, with congressional leaders from both parties signaling their openness to a compromise and the White House proposing its own US$916 billion spending plan Tuesday. But the two sides remain far apart on key issues.

The stakes are particularly high for jobless workers depending on federal programmes that have expanded and extended unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Those programmes expire later this month.

NYTimes