Another 778,000 Americans Filed First-Time Unemployment Claims Last Week

While Americans persistently wait for a stimulus deal to be negotiated within Congress, the job market continues to show minimum improvement in unemployment rates. Just last week, 778,000 people filed for unemployment benefits for the first time, on a seasonally adjusted basis, reports say.

That number is 43,000 more than economists expected from jobless claims and higher than last week’s adjusted number of 748,000, CNN says.

The report also mentioned that “continued jobless claims” was 6.1 million on a seasonally adjusted basis. That was a decrease from the prior week,

As of November 7, over 20.4 million Americans were still collecting some form of unemployment benefits. That’s an increase of more than 1350,00 from the previous week.

Many citizens continue to struggle as COVID-19 cases have recently surged, and discussions regarding stimulus checks have stopped.

“More stringent social distancing policies are being put in place each day. Stay-at-home measures, school closures, and limitations for businesses to operate are going to lead to more layoffs over the winter. It is going to get worse before it gets better,” said Thomas Simons, money market economist with Jefferies, in a report.

There’s increasing optimism among Americans that President-elect Joe Biden will find a way to forge a new stimulus package with Congress after his inauguration in January. Until then, jobless Americans continue to face financial troubles.

“It is quite clear that the intensification of the pandemic, the pullback by the public, and government-mandated lockdowns are clearly combining to cause an increase in first-time claims,” said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist with RSM US, in a report Wednesday morning.

“Despite the potential arrival of a mass-produced and distributed vaccine, this economy demands fiscal aid now,” he added.