The chief economist of the cornerstone macro, Nancy Lazar, argues that the outlook for US jobs will improve in 2021 due to the ‘pent-up’ demand for coronavirus vaccine vaccination. She also discusses her outlook for the US dollar and inflation.
The number of Americans filing unemployment benefits for the first time last week has declined, but it has continued to rise as the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause a large number of layoffs.
Figures released by the Department of Labor on Thursday show that 779,000 Americans filed first unemployment claims in the week ended Jan. 30, lower than the 830,000 forecasters of Refinitiv economists.
The number has been stubbornly high for months and four times higher than the level before the crisis, although it was well below the peak of almost 7 million reached when stay-at-home orders were first issued in March. Nearly 70 million Americans, or about 40% of the workforce, applied for unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
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Continued claims, or the number of Americans receiving successive unemployment benefits, dropped to 4.59 million, down from about 193,000 from the previous week. The report shows that by January 16, approximately 17.8 million Americans received some sort of unemployment benefit, a decrease of 486,405 compared to the previous week.
Many more Americans are receiving unemployment benefits from two federal programs that Congress drafted in March with the adoption of the CARES law: one supporting self-employed individuals, gig workers, and others who are not usually eligible to receive benefits, and the others provide assistance to those who have exhausted their state benefits.
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The federal government renewed these programs at the end of December with a $ 900 billion emergency relief package, which included a $ 300-a-week additional unemployment benefit, a one-time $ 600 stimulus test for most adults and new funding for a small business includes. rescue program.
But Congress Democrats, who saw first aid as just the beginning of relief efforts, are leading the way with a nearly $ 2 billion stimulus package without any Republican support. Proposed by President Biden in early January, the proposal includes $ 160 billion for vaccine distribution and COVID-19 testing, extended unemployment benefits at $ 400 per week until September and a third stimulus test worth $ 1,400 .