Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
US Unemployment Claims Jump to 965,000 as Virus Takes Toll
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
January 14, 2021

Share

WASHINGTON — The number of people seeking unemployment aid soared last week to 965,000, the most since late August and a sign that the resurgent virus has likely escalated layoffs.

The latest figures for jobless claims, issued Thursday by the Labor Department, remain at levels never seen until the virus struck. Before the pandemic, weekly applications typically numbered around 225,000. They spiked to nearly 7 million last spring, after nationwide shutdowns took effect. Applications declined over the summer but have been stuck above 700,000 since September.

The high pace of layoffs coincides with an economy that has faltered as consumers have avoided traveling, shopping and eating out in the face of soaring viral caseloads. More than 4,300 deaths were reported Tuesday, another record high. Shutdowns of restaurants, bars and other venues where people gather in California, New York and other states have likely forced up layoffs.

Some states and cities are resisting shutdowns, partly out of fear of the economic consequences but raising the risk of further infections. Minnesota allowed in-person dining to resume this week. Michigan is poised to do the same. Some bars and restaurants in Kansas City are extending their hours.

Economists say that once coronavirus vaccines are more widely distributed, a broader recovery should take hold in the second half of the year. The incoming Biden administration, along with a now fully Democratic-led House and Senate, is also expected to push more rescue aid and spending measures that could accelerate growth.

Yet many analysts also worry that with millions of Americans still unemployed and as many as one in six small companies going out of business, people who have been hurt most by the downturn won’t likely benefit from a recovery anytime soon.

“While prospects for the economy later in 2021 are upbeat, the labor market recovery has taken a step backward,” said Nancy Vanden Houten, an economist at Oxford Economics, “and we expect claims to remain elevated, with the risk that they rise from last week’s levels.”

Many People in the Arts and Entertainment Fields Have Lost Most or All of Their Incomes

Last week’s applications for aid might have been elevated in part because state employment offices had been closed over the holidays, requiring some jobless people to wait until last week to apply. The addition of a $300-a-week federal unemployment benefit, as part of a rescue aid package enacted late last month, may have also encouraged more people to apply, Vanden Houten said.

Many people in the arts and entertainment fields have lost most or all of their incomes as the coronavirus has shut down performance venues. They include Shelby Lewis, a classical trumpet player in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who hasn’t performed since early March, when he played Bach with a Kansas City musical chamber.

Lewis, 48, is receiving $400 in weekly unemployment aid, including the new $300 federal benefit, and his wife is still working. He appreciates the federal aid, which freelance musicians like him haven’t been eligible for in the past.

Fearful, though, that many classical music groups will permanently close, Lewis is shifting his career back to photography and design, which he did for a decade before becoming a full-time musician.

“I think there is generally going to be a decline for small regional orchestras,” he said.

In addition to last week’s first-time applications for unemployment aid, the government said Thursday that 5.3 million Americans are continuing to receive state jobless benefits, up from 5.1 million in the previous week. It suggests that fewer people who are out of work are finding jobs.

About 11.6 million people received jobless aid from two federal programs in the week that ended Dec. 26, the latest period for which data is available. One of those programs provides extended benefits to people who have exhausted their state aid. The other supplies benefits to self-employed and contract workers.

The Figures Also Depicted a Sharply Uneven Job Market

Those two programs had expired near the end of December. They were belatedly renewed, through mid-March, in the $900 billion rescue aid package that Congress approved and President Donald Trump signed into law. That legislation also included $600 relief checks for most adults and a supplemental unemployment benefit payment of $300 a week. Congressional Democrats favor boosting the checks to $2,000 and extending federal aid beyond March, as does President-elect Joe Biden.

The U.S. job market’s weakness was made painfully clear in the December employment report that the government issued last week. Employers shed jobs for the first time since April as the pandemic tightened its grip on consumers and businesses.

The figures also depicted a sharply uneven job market: The losses last month were concentrated among restaurants, bars, hotels and entertainment venues — places that provide in-person services that some governments have restricted or that consumers are avoiding. Educational services, mostly colleges and universities, also cut workers in December. So did film and music studios.

Most other large industries, though, reported job gains. Many economists had expected last spring that job losses would spread to more industries. Though all sectors of the economy initially laid off workers, most of them have avoided deep job cuts. Manufacturing, construction, and professional services like engineering and architecture, for example, all added jobs in December.

At the same time, many companies seem reluctant to sharply ramp up hiring. A government report Tuesday showed that employers advertised fewer open jobs in November than in October. The decline, while small, was widespread across most industries. Even now, the nation has nearly 10 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic sent the economy into a deep recession nearly a year ago, having recovered just 56% of the jobs lost in the spring.

Those job losses have fallen disproportionately on women, who are more likely to work in the affected industries. They are also more likely to have quit jobs to stay home and care for children, many of whom are engaged in online schooling.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

DON'T MISS

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

DON'T MISS

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

DON'T MISS

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

DON'T MISS

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

DON'T MISS

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

DON'T MISS

Should Builders Permit Their Own Projects? Post-fire LA Considers a Radical Idea

DON'T MISS

I Was a Bad Father. How Do I Live With the Regret?

DON'T MISS

Royal Caribbean to Launch First-Ever San Diego Cruises in 2026

DON'T MISS

What Is Field Hockey? Fresno’s Sikh Community Explains

UP NEXT

Poll: Where US Adults Think the Government Is Spending Too Much

UP NEXT

USAID in Turmoil as Aid Programs Cut, Staff Stranded

UP NEXT

Pentagon’s New Media Rotation Program Boots NPR, NY Times, NBC News

UP NEXT

Apple Changes Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America on Maps

UP NEXT

Red, White, and Blueland? GOP Congressman Proposes Bill to Rename Greenland

UP NEXT

White House Bars AP Reporter From Oval Office Because of AP Style Policy on ‘Gulf of America’

UP NEXT

Russia Has Released Detained American Teacher Marc Fogel, the White House Says

UP NEXT

Canned Tuna Sold at Trader Joe’s, Costco, H-E-B Recalled for Botulism Risk

UP NEXT

Fact Check: No Evidence Chelsea Clinton Took $84 Million From USAID

UP NEXT

Private Jets Collide at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona, Killing at Least 1 Person, Authorities Say

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

13 hours ago

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

13 hours ago

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

16 hours ago

Should Builders Permit Their Own Projects? Post-fire LA Considers a Radical Idea

17 hours ago

I Was a Bad Father. How Do I Live With the Regret?

18 hours ago

Royal Caribbean to Launch First-Ever San Diego Cruises in 2026

2 days ago

What Is Field Hockey? Fresno’s Sikh Community Explains

2 days ago

Sean Combs Sues NBC Over Documentary That He Says Defamed Him

2 days ago

European Detour Destinations Are 2025’s New Travel Trend

2 days ago

California’s Aging Population Will Test Whether Its Demography Is Destiny

2 days ago

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

TORONTO — A badly injured child is among eight people who were hurt Monday when a Delta Airlines plane flipped upon arrival at Toronto’s Pea...

9 hours ago

A Delta Air Lines plane heading from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed at Toronto's Pearson Airport, Monday Feb. 17, 2025. (Teresa Barbieri/The Canadian Press via AP)
9 hours ago

Delta Plane Flips on Toronto Runway Amid Winter Storm

10 hours ago

Fresno Joins National Protests Against Trump Administration

Team United States fans cheer after their team defeated Canada in a 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game in Montreal, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)
13 hours ago

Canadian National Anthem Booed, but Only Lightly, at 4 Nations Hockey Tournament

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, boards Air Force Two at the Philadelphia International Airport on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. Harris might have traveled on Friday to Philadelphia or Milwaukee for the umpteenth time, but motivating tuned-out voters in battleground states required something different. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times)
13 hours ago

Former Vice President Kamala Harris to Be Honored by NAACP With Its Chairman’s Award

Downed trees cover the roadway toward South Jefferson Street from severe weather in downtown Tuscumbia, Ala., Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025.(Dan Busey/The TimesDaily via AP)
13 hours ago

‘Life-Threatening Cold’ Expected as Polar Vortex Stretches Across US

16 hours ago

Where to Chill on the Cheap in the Caribbean

17 hours ago

Should Builders Permit Their Own Projects? Post-fire LA Considers a Radical Idea

18 hours ago

I Was a Bad Father. How Do I Live With the Regret?

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend