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US weekly jobless claims stay above 1 million for a 2nd straight week as labor-market recovery stalls

Unemployment California Los Angeles
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez

  • New US jobless claims for the week that ended Saturday totaled 1 million, the Labor Department said Thursday. That matched the consensus economist estimate.
  • Thursday's reading comes after a surprise increase the prior week in which claims first rose back above 1 million.
  • The latest report brought total filings over a 23-week period to more than 58 million.
  • Continuing claims, which measure the sum of Americans receiving unemployment benefits, totaled 14.5 million for the week that ended August 15, a slight decrease from the prior week.
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More than 1 million Americans filed new claims for unemployment insurance last week as coronavirus fallout continued to hit the labor market.

New US weekly jobless claims totaled just over 1 million last week, the Labor Department announced Thursday. The reading matched the estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg and is roughly in line with the prior period.

It comes after a surprise jump the prior week in which claims rose back above 1 million. Jobless claims have hovered at that level over the past few weeks as hiring failed to speed up.

In just a few months, the more than 58 million unemployment claims filed during the coronavirus pandemic have far surpassed the 37 million during the 18-month Great Recession. The latest figure is still far more than the 665,000 filed during the Great Recession's worst week.

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Continuing claims, which represent the aggregate total of people receiving unemployment benefits, came in at 14.5 million for the week that ended August 15, a slight decline from the prior period's revised number. The figure did, however, exceed economist forecasts.

Other high-frequency data releases have shown the US economic recovery sputtering out in recent weeks. Consumer confidence fell for a second straight month in August. Credit- and debit-card gauges have shown consumer spending slowing its growth through the month with fiscal stimulus drying up and Americans remaining wary of COVID-19 hot spots.

Read more: Chris Mayer wrote the book on how to make 100 times your money with a single stock. He gives an in-depth assessment of the latest company that 'checks all my boxes.'

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