US jobless claims top one million mark again

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People waiting in front of an employment office in Kentucky: More job seekers again

In the United States, contrary to expectations, the number of initial weekly claims for government unemployment benefits has risen again. A total of 1.106 million citizens submitted a corresponding initial application last week, as the Ministry of Labor announced. Compared to the previous week, the number rose by 135,000 applications.

In the previous week, according to corrected figures, there were still 971,000 new applications. For comparison, before the pandemic, rarely more than 100,000 Americans had applied for unemployment benefits a week.

In the case of current applications, the number fell noticeably in the week to August 8, from around 15.48 million to 14.84 million applications. The unemployment rate, which is calculated from this, fell by 0.4 percentage points to 10.2 percent in July. In April it had reached 14.7 percent, the highest level since records began after World War II.

Trump: $ 400 instead of $ 600 additional unemployment benefits

Initial jobless claims are considered a short-term indicator of the labor market situation. Some US central bankers pointed out at the latest meeting of the Federal Reserve that the upswing in the US labor market was already losing momentum. They therefore consider additional economic stimulus to be necessary. 

The persistently high number is also significant because Republicans and Democrats are arguing over a replacement for the expired additional federal unemployment benefit of $ 600 per week from a corona aid package from March. President Donald Trump ordered payments of $ 400 per week, but a quarter of this is to be brought in by the partially financially tight states.

caw / Reuters / dpa