Jobless Claims Slightly Dip As Coronavirus Cases Surge

Initial jobless claims for the week ending Nov. 28 dipped to 712,000, down 75,000 from the previous week's revised level  even as states renewed lockdown measures amid a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. New claims the previous week were revised up by 9,000 to 787,000.  

According to the latest weekly Bureau of Labor Statistics report released on Thursday (Dec. 3), the total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Nov. 14 was 20.2 million, down 349,633 from the previous week. Comparatively, a comparable week in 2019 had fewer than 1.6 million claims.  

“The rapid spread of the virus across the nation is making it harder to find employment this fall and this puts the entire economic recovery from recession in jeopardy if Congress can't get it together and vote on a new stimulus package before the end of the year,” Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist for MUFG Union Bank, told Yahoo Finance Wednesday. 

Last week’s data indicated that some 20.5 million Americans claimed some kind of unemployment benefits. 

After several weeks of improvement, new jobless claims started going up again in mid-November as a second wave of infections took hold. New cases surpassed 4 million last month, more than twice the level in October. 

But despite renewed lockdowns and an escalating number of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, new weekly jobless claims have remained under 1 million since August, significantly less than their March 28 peak of nearly 7 million.